Julia Holderness is an artist based in Ōtautahi Christchurch, New Zealand. She holds a PhD in practice-led visual arts from Auckland University of Technology (2022). Holderness also has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Canterbury (2002) and an Honours (First-class) in Visual Arts from AUT University (2015). Titled Ever Present Archiving: methodologies for art histories through invention, fabrication and social practice, her PhD project explored archives and their construction of art-historical narratives.

Holderness has staged a number of significant exhibition projects throughout Aotearoa, including The Studio which was presented at Dunedin Public Art Gallery in 2021 and The National in 2022 and her final PhD exhibition at Saint Paul St Gallery in 2022. Holderness was awarded an AUT University Vice-Chancellor’s Doctoral Scholarship and won the Glaister Ennor Graduate Art Award in 2016. Other projects include Florence & Florence: Other Textile Histories presented at Ilam Campus Gallery in 2018, Gallery 91 for SCAPE Public Art and Aigantighe Art Gallery in 2017 and The Group: home-wares at Objectspace and The National in 2016. Holderness is represented by Sanderson Contemporary.

Her practice and outputs are often collaborative and she works alongside both historic and current artists. In creating narratives that might or might not have existed – encompassing artists, groups, movements, and exhibitions – her research practice deliberates on the role of fiction in both the collection and interpretation of material histories. Holderness critiques traditionally held divides between art historical scholarship and artistic fabrication. Through the use of invented personae, artworks and exhibitions, Holderness traces alternative histories of modernism in New Zealand. Her installations combine mixed media fabrications, often textile and ceramic making with historical materials from art and design archives. She also produces sound and text works within these installations. Holderness’s earlier collaborative work as Fitts & Holderness has seen her participate in exhibitions and residencies both nationally and internationally.