Curtis Holder

Curtis Holder (b. 1968, Leicester, UK) is a London-based artist whose drawing practice is shaped by an enduring interest in people. Working primarily in graphite and coloured pencil, he creates large-scale portraits and figurative works that emerge through close observation and conversation, with each drawing becoming a record of shared experience, built through thousands of accumulated marks that trace presence and time. Holder’s work is held in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, Leeds Art Gallery, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and Soho House.

His solo exhibitions include Portraits of Brotherhood at Guildford House Gallery and the RBSA Gallery, Birmingham; Silent Echoes, Spoken Truths at Leeds Art Gallery; Curtis Holder: Drawing Carlos Acosta at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery; and The Makers: Portraits from Backstage at the National Theatre. He won Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year in 2020, received the John Ruskin Prize in 2024, and was awarded a residency at Yaddo, New York, in 2025.