Holly Thorburn

Born and raised in and around London, Holly draws inspiration from inner city life. These influences are evident in her abstracted paintings, and reflected in her edgy style and effusive use of texture and colour. Her work references an eclectic mix of street art, graffiti, and the natural decay of urban spaces.

Her recent years have been spent traveling the world, sourcing and photographing inspiring scenes and developing her own way of recording the places she visits, from New York and Berlin, to India and Australia. Returning to London, she sets about, in her own unique way, recreating these surroundings — by summoning the cities’ walls and spaces to the canvas.

The works resident here at Twr y Felin were inspired by street art and urban textures from locations as diverse as the streets of Dublin, Ireland and Darwin, Australia. A back street in the gritty Dublin centre along with a graffitied Irish freight lorry provided the colours and look of ‘Dublin’. A combination of the humidity, dust, Aboriginal and street art in Northern Australia inspired the warm tones and inky hues of ‘Darwin’.

Holly has exhibited to international acclaim in cities as widespread as London, Los Angeles and Berlin.