Clive Holden (b. 1959, Nanaimo, Canada) makes media sculptures, mixed media works on varied surfaces, and avant garde films.

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Holden’s media sculptures are ‘Cagean’ in that they’re a live experience, existing on the cusp of object and performance. They rely on chance operations in the form of custom code, while they ‘perform’ their own completion. Each viewing is unique.

His best-known work, UNSUNG (2024), was a commission for the Centre culturel canadien in Paris for the Jeux olympiques. It featured Paralympian and Olympian athlete portraits re-mixing live with hand-painted film, in a dynamic, large-scale work viewed from 360°. His community outreach project/media sculpture, UNAMERICAN UNFAMOUS Brooklyn, was exhibited at the Kingsborough Art Museum in 2023. Brooklynites were asked to submit photos of their favourite ‘Unfamous UnAmericans’ which were included in the artwork. In 2026, he’s completed Hunger Filled the City Like Water. Its title is an ancient quote referring to the fall of Ur (the world’s first city, origin of the word ‘urban’).

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Holden also makes mixed media works on paper and canvas, and has screened avant garde film and media art internationally, particularly in Germany, The Netherlands, and Denmark. He incorporates a wide range of new and traditional materials into his artworks. The resulting experience has a palpable sense of newness that is grounded in visual history … viewers sometimes asking, Why do I want to keep watching?

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Credits (solo exhibitions, screenings and special events): le Centre culturel canadien – Paris; Brooklyn’s Kingsborough Art Museum; transmediale – Berlin; the Gardiner Museum/CONTACT Festival – Toronto; Danish Film Institute/CPH:DOX (winner of the New Vision Award) – Copenhagen; Anthology Film Archives – New York; Kino Arsenal – Berlin; the Muziekgebouw – Amsterdam; Light Industry – Brooklyn; the London International Film Festival; Toronto International Film Festival; the Foreman Art Gallery of Bishops University – Sherbrooke; Images Festival – Toronto; the International Film Festival – Rotterdam; the Art Gallery of Mississauga; Image Centre – Toronto; the European Media Art Festival – Osnabrück; the Pacific Cinematheque – Vancouver; Kosmopolis – Barcelona; Send + Receive – Winnipeg. and the Bienal Internacional del Cartel en México – Mexico City.