Andy Holden lives and works in Bedfordshire, UK
Works can be found in the permanent collections of Tate Gallery, Leeds Art Gallery, Bristol Museum, Arts Council Collection and Zabludowicz Collection in the UK, Kroller Muller Museum, NL, and various collections in Europe.
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Natural History of Nest Building, Huddersfield Museum
2024 ‘Natural History of Nest Building’, Tate St Ives, Cornwall, UK
Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape, The Perimeter, London, UK
What I was for What I am Becoming, Charles Moffett, New York
2023 Song of Songs, Seventeen, London
Full of Days, Gallery of Everything, London,
Full of Days, CAST, Helston, Cornwall
2021 Collected Domestic Conceptualism, Pitt Studio, Worcester
2020 Structure of Feeling (Ghost Train), Block 336, London
2019 Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape, Cinema Museum, London
Natural Selection, Shetland Arts, Shetland
Natural Selection, Bristol Museum, Bristol
Natural Selection, HospitalFields/Arbroath Law Courts, Arbroath
2018 Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape, Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada
Natural Selection, CAST, Cornwall
Natural Selection, Towner Gallery, Eastbourne
Natural Selection, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds
2017 As Speed Increases Objects can Bend in Several Places at Once, Lancaster Arts, Bailrigg
Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape, Wasps, Glasgow International, Glasgow
2015 Towards a Unified Theory of M!MS, Kunsthall Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland
It’s Only Bondage was the Circling Sky, SVA/Site Festival, Stroud
2014 Towards a Unified Theory of M!MS, Spike Island, Bristol
2013 Towards a Unified Theory of M!MS, Zabludowicz Collection, London
Folly and Landscape, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh
2012 The Dan Cox Library for the UnFinished Concept of Thingly Time, Cubitt Gallery, London
Stalagmite Rock Club, Art Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Cookham Erratics, Works|Projects, Bristol
2011 Chewy Cosmos Thingly Time, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
Cookham Erratic, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
2010 Art Now: Andy Holden, TATE Britain, London
Permanent Vacation, Bureau Manchester, Manchester
2009 Desert Project, Works|Projects, Bristol
A Series of Small Encounters, Hidden van Seggelen, Hamburg, Germany
2008 The World is Round and Mr Wrigley Makes Chewing Gum, Kunstfort, The Netherlands
You Go On Without Me, Hex Projects, London
2007 So Long See You Tomorrow/Unquiet Grave, Hidde van Seggelen
Group Exhibitions
2025 Dear Earth, Kings Place, London
2024 The Wood for the Trees, Kröller-Müller Museum, NL.
Cute Somerset House, London
2023 Behold, Hypha Studio’s, London
Amber Rooms, Matt’s Gallery, London
2022 British Art Show 9, Whitworth, Manchester
British Art Show 9, Plymouth
Raw Nerves, Hannah Barry Gallery, London
Ghost Show, Copeland Park, London
Cubitt 30, Victoria Miro, London
Empathy for People, Empathy for Things, University of Hertfordshire Gallery, Hatfield
For the Birds, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, New York, New York
British Art Show 9, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton
2021 Unnatural History, Herbert Coventry, Coventry
Arcadia, Bold Tendencies, London
British Art Show 9, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen
To the Edge of Time, The Leuven University Library, Leuven, Belgium
2019 Fragile Earth, MIMA, Middlesbrough
Invisible, Science Gallery, Dublin
Dark Matter, Science Gallery, London
Cartoony, New Media Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2018 Good Grief Charlie Brown, Somerset House, London
Natural Selection/Laws of Motion, Front International, Cleveland, Ohio
Animals and Us, Turner Contemporary, Margate
Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape (live), Groundwork, Cornwall
Rinnzekete bee bee nnz eer müü, Kunstverein Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, Germany
Front Triennal, Cleveland, USA
2017 Natural Selection, Artangel at Former Newington Library, London
Laws of Motion, Kunsthalle Viborg, Denmark, Copenhagen
Future Generation Art Prize, Pinchuk Foundation, Kyiv, Ukraine
Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
50 Years of Milton Keynes, M!MS Dream Sequence, Milton Keynes Gallery, Milton Keynes
2016 The Practice of Theories, Wysing Arts Center, South Cambridgeshire
Secret Surface, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
Playing by the Rules, Royal Standard, Liverpool
Pitt Projects: Music vs Ceramics, Pulse, New York, New York
TEFAF Maastricht, Hidde van Seggelen, Hamburg, Germany
Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape, Wasps, Glasgow International, Glasgow
2015 Towards a UniFied Theory of M!MS, Kunsthall Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland
It’s Only Bondage was the Circling Sky, SVA/Site Festival, Stroud
20 Years, Zabludowicz Collection, London
2014 The Politics of Friendship Tour, tour of none artist-run spaces around the UK with the Grubby Mitts inc:
Primary, S1 Artspace, Rhubaba, Supercollider, Karts, Aid and Abet, Grand Union, Open School East
Hey I’m Mr Poetic, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge
Anatomy of Anxieties, Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong
Cacotopia / Peach Blossom Spring, Kui Yuan Gallery, China
On the Devolution of Culture, Rob Tufnell, London
2013 Seven Short Works in Time, Hospitalfield Arts, Angus
Lecture on Nesting, Performa 13, New York, New York
As real as walking down the street and going to the grocery store, Rowing, London
Universal Addressability of Dumb Things, Hayward Touring curated by Mark Leckey,
Version Control, Arnolfini, Bristol
Liverpool Bluecoat, Nottingham Contemporary, De la Ware Pavilion
Folly and Landscape, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh
2012 Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape, Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston
Soundworks, ICA, London
Nothing Like Something Happens Anywhere, Chapter, Cardiff
Latitude Contemporary Art, Latitude Festival, Suffolk
Discussing Metamodernism, Gallery Tanja Wagner, Berlin, Germany
A Plea for Tenderness, Seventeen Gallery, curated by David R Conroy, London
Brief Interview’s with Hideous Men, ICA, London
Human Made Things, Aspex, Portsmouth
Occupants, Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston
2011 Transcendental Empiricism, Rob Tufnell, London
BruderKreigSoundSystem, ICA, curated by Mark Leckey, London
I Promise to Love You, Kunsthalle Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
A Fire in the Master’s House is Set, Chapter, Cardiff
Off the Record, Resonance 104.4 Fm, London
2010 Props, Events and Encounters, Hub, Athens, Greece
Six Short Works In Time, Victoria University Gallery, Liverpool
Daily, Action, Poetry, Hayward Gallery, London
Lecture on Nesting, London Festival of Architecture
The Eccentric, The Idiosyncratic and the Unpredictable, Schirman & de Beaucé, Paris, France
Canadian Pharmacy, Neon Parc, Melbourne, Australia
2009 Performed, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge
Abstract, Almost Abstract 2, Gallerie van Gelder, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2008 Experimental Folklore, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
Poldergeist, Kunstfort Vijfhuizen, Vijfhuizen, The Netherlands
2006 The Thing in Itself, Peles Empire, curated by Mark Leckey, Berlin, Germany
Performances
2024 Lecture on Birdsong, Kroller Muller Museum, NL
2023 Lecture on Birdsong, Wakefield One, Wakefield
2019 Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape (live), Alserkal Avenue Project Space, Dubai
Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape (live), Cinema Museum,
Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape (live), MOCA Toronto
Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape (live), Kunsthal Viborg
Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape (live), Science Gallery, London
Cat-tharis (Live), Cinema Museum
2018 Opposite of Time, (Live), Henry Moore Studio, Mutch Hadam
Opposite of Time, (Live), Hogchester Arts
2017 World as Cartoon, Tate Britain, London
Cat-tharsis, V&A Museum, curated by Mira Calix
The Grubby Mitts (Live), Cecil Sharp House, London
2016 Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape (live), Glasgow International
Grubby Mitts, Live at Donau Festival, Austria
2015 Cat-tharsis, SVA Stroud
Lecture on Nesting, Bristol Museum
Grubby Mitts (Live) at Latitude Festival
2014 Hello, Welcome, performance for Art Licks Weekend
2012 Grubby Mitts with Damo Suzuki, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, ICA, London
Becoming Thing, performance with Ed Atkins, Whitechapel Gallery, London
Lecture on Nesting, Penzance Convention, performance with Peter Holden, Penzance
Lecture on Bird Song, House of Beasts, Attingham Park
Grubby Mitts, Performance at First Site, Colchester
Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape, Hay-on-Wye Festival
2011 Life of the Mind (Grubby Mitts performance), New Art Gallery, curated by Bob and Roberta Smith, Walsall Three Short Works in Time, TATE Britain, London
Short Works in Time, Kettles Yard, Cambridge
2010 Six Short Works In Time, Victoria University Gallery, Liverpool
2009 Lecture on Migration, Transition Gallery,
London Two Short Works In Time, Odeon Cinema
Grubby Mitts, live at Wysing Arts Centre
Grubby Mitts, Cube Cinema, Bristol
Commissions
2023 Auguries, Permanent public sculpture commission, Wakefield
I may be over there but my heart is over hear (with Mira Calix), permanent mural, BCA, Bedford
2019 What is Love? Animated film commixed by Google Arts and Culture for the BBC
2014 The Proper Situation is Sublime, commission for Cambridge Hospital
2012 Unquiet Grave, Sculpture for Latitude Festival, Suffolk, UK
2013 ‘Chewy Cosmos’, Random Acts, for Channel 4, commissioned by TATE Media
Curated Exhibitions
2021 Beano: Art of Breaking the Rules, Somerset House, London
2020 What Am I? Simon Munnery Retrospective, SVA, Gloucestershire
2019 What Am I? - An Exhibition by Simon Munnery, Ex-Baldessarre, Bedford
Sour Persimmons Chasm, Curated by Andy Holden, Ex-Baldessarre, Bedford
2018 Silly Symphony, Ex-Baldessarre, Bedford
Estate of Hermione, Ex-Baldessarre, Bedford
2010 Be Glad for the Song Has No End - a Festival of Artists Music, Wysing Art Centre
Awards
2012 Paul Hamlyn Award
2011 Stanley Picker Fellowship, Kingston University
2008 Boise Travel Award, Slade/UCL
Publications
Andy Holden (Monograph) by Jennifer Higgie, HENI, 2026 (Forthcoming)
Birds in Art, Phaidon, 2022,
Collected Free Labour, Slimvolume, 2021
Natural Selection, Artangel, 2017, with essays by Helen MacDonald and Darian Leader
M!MS, Zabludowicz Publishing, 2013
The Object, Documents in Contemporary Art, Whitechapel Gallery, 2012
Chewy Cosmos Thingy Time, Kettles Yard Catalogue, 2011
The Art of Not Making, Thames and Hudson, 2011
Spacecraft, Hideouts, & Fleeting Architectures II, Gestalten, 2009
The World is Round and Mr Wriggly Makes Chewing Gum, Catalogue, NL, 2008
Spacecraft, Hideouts, & Fleeting Architectures, Gestalten, 2007
Record Releases
What The World Needs Now Is… The Grubby Mitts , CD Album, 2015
Towards a Unified Theory of M!MS, 12” Vinyl, 2013
To a friend’s house the way is never long, 7” vinyl
Standard 7” vinyl
Music of Exhaustion 7” vinyl
After the Fact, CD Edition of 100
Quartet for Thingly Time, CD Edition 100
Thing-In-Itself, Tape Edition
Selected Press:
Front Row, BBC Radio 4, 17th May 2023
Full of Days, The Wonderfully Strange…, Adrian Searl, Guardian, April 2023
When Outsider Art Entered the Mainstream, Hettie Judah, Appolo, 6th July 2023
Raw Vision, review of Full of Days, Nuala Ernest, Summer 2023
After Discovering a trove of Extraordinary Paintings…Artnet, Jo Lawson-Tancred, April 2023
Andy Holden Interviewed by Jarvis Cocker, Observer, April 2022
British Art Show 9 Finds Healing in Troubled Times, Financial Times, February 21 2022.
How Our Critic Ended up in the Beano, (5* Review), Guardian, by Adrian Searle, Oct 2021
Heartfelt, Meticulous, and Splendidly Irreverent, Financial Times, Arwa Halder, 2nd Nov 2021
How the Beano Encouraged Generations of Artist’s to Break the Rules, Arts Newspaper, Oct 2021
Natural Selection, review, Himali Singh Soin, Art Forum, Jan 2018
Frieze, Laws of Motion, feature, Darian Leader, July 2017
Observer, 5* Review of Natural Selection, Laura Cummings, Oct 2017
Guardian, Natural Selction Review, Sky Sherwin, Oct 2017
Andy Holden’s Maximum Irony! Maximum Sincerity, Notes on Metamodernism, Elinor Morgan, Sept 2014
Rising stars of 2014 – art, Sky Sherwin, The Observer, Jan 2014
Robert Clark and Skye Sherwin, The best exhibitions of 2014: The Guardian
Interview: Frieze Magazine, June 2012.
Modern Painters, Childish Things: Andy Holden’s Sincere Irony
Mousse Magazine, Andy Holden at Zabludowicz Collection
20 inspirational artist selected by Frieze cover artists, 2010
Interview, Crack Magazine, Feb 2013
I Object, Art Monthly, September 2013
Frieze, review, David Trigg, March 2012
Sound: Be Glad For The Song Has No End, review, Art Monthly, November 2010
Chewy Cosmos, Thingly Time, review by David Ryan, Art Monthly, Sept 2011