Corners 2006 & Untitled 2006 (Green)

Selected Writing: Extract from press release, Kontainer, Los Angeles, U.S.A (September/November 2006)


Holyhead�s paintings have a slight, but razor sharp aftertaste. They have an air of a witty retort, a cutting yet poignant remark; an answer, perhaps, to the question of serious abstraction. Beginning with small diagrams, first in pencil and then in watercolour, each stage educates the next by process of accumulation, dilution and consideration until this history is finally transferred to the canvas.

Orange 2007 & Grey 2007 (Oil on Canvas)

Paired down forms sit alongside repetitive dementia, making Holyhead�s paintings unique in their apparent resolve of empty space. In the very essence of these refined paintings lies the almost intuitive ability of creating a balancing act for our compositional sensibilities. They carry the oddest of all painterly beauties; tottering on the edge of irreversible disaster and then holding back with grace and poise, leaving us in awe of their balance and focus, yet questioning their capacity to do this.


This embattled structure demonstrates a potentially transgressive space within contemporary abstract painting, and one that results in a fracturing of both method and result. In a swift merging of colour and mark Holyhead extracts sections of cut mass and carved lines to create an informed dialogue between components whose territory on the canvas is strictly predetermined. This ability to strip down the surface and its forms to a raw and compellingly malleable process has become notable as Holyhead�s characteristic approach.

Green 2007 & Red and Brown 2007 (Oil on Canvas)