ABOUT
Tyreis Holder is an Artist, Poet, Visual Storyteller and Community arts Educator from South London, with heritage reigning from Jamaican/St Vincent.
She works heavily in mediums pertaining to installation, textiles, performance, poetry, sculpture and sound. Her practice centres around explorations of self, identity politics, generational/ancestral healing, heritage, and the relationship with the mind, particularly
within regards to navigating colonial spaces.
Primary grounds for exploration pertain to how textiles poses as poetic language, functioning as a healing device- specifically in regards to trauma experienced by black women.
Photo by Hasna Tayar
Bringing lived experiences into her practice, she aims to generate conversations around how social and intimate spaces are shaped through race, diffability*, community, class, sexuality and culture.Poetry translates into garments, installations pose as poetry pages.Her work has been featured on BBC One, BBC Radio, The Arts Newspaper, the Financial Times, and ITV. In 2023, she was invited by the British Embassy in Copenhagen as an Inspirational Woman, and in 2024 she was elected as the second Virgil Abloh Foundation Scholar to undertake studies at the Royal College of Art.
*She interchanges the word disability with diffability and disabled with diffable. The word disabled implies lack, ‘dis’ deriving from latin meaning ‘not’. The constant reminder of lack can have a negative psychological impact. Words have weight. However, through difference, you can find power. She has coined the terms diffabiliity and diffabled – deriving from differ-bility and differ-abled, but has chosen a phonetic spelling approach drawing from the structure of patwa
AWARDS
Virgil Abloh Foundation Scholar - Royal College of Art, 2024
Forbes 30 under 30 2023 Arts and Culture Europe, 2023
Nominated recipient Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award, 2022
UK New artist of the Year award - runner up, 2022
Christine Riley Award recipient, 2020
The people choice award 2017 recipient, Evolve Exhibition
PANEL TALKS| DISCUSSIONS
2023, Henry Moore foundation talk for University Colchester Students
2022, Venice Bienalle, Republic of Uzbekistan- Women representation in art: Shifting Landscape
2022, Upgrade yourself festival, Somerset House
2019, Goldsmiths CCA, Deptford X - Stop Making Sense - panel discussion, New Cross, London
PRESS FEATURES
BBC One Show, ITV, BBC Radio
Arts Newspaper, Financial Times
RESIDENCIES
2020 - present, Somerset House Studio resident
2021-2022 - Adidas x Guap creators network
2021 - Artworks X Home - Portugal
POETRY| PERFORMANCE HISTORY
2020, Somerset House, AGM 2020, Strand, London
2020, South London Gallery, Working Progress, Peckham, London
2019, Deptford X - Stop Making Sense - Supported Strand, Deptford, London
2019, The Welcome Collection, Being Human: Youth private view and launch party, Euston, London
2019, ICA, Reflect Remember Reclaim Heal, The Mall, London
2019, Arthill Gallery, Feedback- New Wave Magazine, London
2018, St James Hatcham Building, Goldsmiths University, You’ll know is you belong, New Cross, London
2017, New Theatre The BRIT School, R.A.P showcase, Selhurst, London
PARTICIPATORY ART PROJECTS | WORKSHOPS
2020, Goldsmiths CCA, Room to Room, Remote, London
2020, Deptford X, The fututre is a collective, online workshop
2019, Grenfell day camp, Art workshop, Westbourne, London
2019, Poetic Unity, Poetry Workshop, Theatre Peckham, London
•EDUCATION
Royal College of Art, MA Textiles, 2025
Goldsmiths University, Bachelor of Fine Arts, First Class Honours, 2020
The Brit School, Visual Arts and Design, 2017