Born in Mill Valley, California in 1996, Gemma Holzer is a London based artist whose work depicts otherworldly creatures in empty digitized spaces. Holzer spent her early years in California, and later Utrecht in the Netherlands, until she moved to London in 2015 to study art. She went on to attain a Foundation diploma at the Art Academy, and a first class bachelors degree in Fine Art from City & Guilds of London.

Markedly successful in her art career thus far, Holzer’s work has been shown all over the world in both group and solo exhibitions, reaching cities including New York, Los Angeles, Taipei, and Shanghai.

She is currently attending the RCA MA painting program 2024-25.

Holzer’s paintings depict otherworldly creatures and the spaces in which they exist. In her latest body of work, the creatures are placed as stone idols to be honoured and remembered. Their depictions are based on artefacts from antiquity related to funerary rites; to be viewed as vessels
that hold memories. They suggest sentimentalities related to the passing of time.

Some paintings reference neolithic standing stones and cairns; there is an allure to the visual weight and tension of such structures. Holzer is drawn to the precarious balance of the rockpiles.

In contrast to the ancient subject matter, the representations of the relics feel newly manufactured. The works feature sharp lines, saturated colours, and empty spaces echoing desolate virtual worlds.

A sense of solitude can be felt through aesthetic references to online spaces. A reflection on loneliness in a digitised world.