Biography
Derek Anthony Holland, MPH, MFA (Born in Montgomery, AL) is an artist and researcher raised between the suburbs of Washington, DC and Philadelphia, PA. Derek is currently a Black Midwest Initiative Fellow and former Access to Excellence Fellow at University of Illinois at Chicago where they were an undergraduate photography department instructor. Derek has a background in public health research and earned a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Washington University in St. Louis where they worked on research projects with various health equity centered organizations in St. Louis, MO, Baltimore, MD, Philadelphia, PA and recently Chicago, IL. Derek’s art work has been written about in publications including Hyperallergic and has been featured on panel discussions and podcasts creating bridges between public health and visual arts. They have collaborated in publishing several peer reviewed public health articles in the Journal of Urban Health, Ethnic and Racial Studies and Journal of Healthy Eating and Active Living. Following this Derek earned their Masters of Fine Arts from University of Illinois at Chicago and has participated in various group art exhibitions including at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, MO, Blanc Gallery, Public Works Gallery, Jude Gallery, and Gallery 400 in Chicago, IL, film screenings at Blanc Gallery and Soho House Chicago, and an international residency at Institut für Alles Mögliche in Berlin, Germany.
Artist Statement as of April 29th, 2024
My practice articulates (expands, suppurates, ripens) fissures in the everyday experience; here identity and individualism are highlighted as vectors (tools, agents) used to undermine modernity and de facto anti blackness. Presently, My modes of making include: text, painting, drawing, sculpture, moving image, performance, and combinations of the aforementioned. The genesis of my work lies in public health research training and my continued aspiration to impact community health with art. Today, this practical background acts a foundation and guiding star for the art work I make.
My personal experiences, art and public health research methodologies are references used to iterate the fissures of everyday in ways discernibly relatable and otherwise. My work references a history of Black people that work within and outside of institutions and draws from my own interiority ( e.g. dreams, conversations, family photos, daily routines, etc..). With all my work, I aspire that those who attempt to understand the ubiquity of anti-blackness and its vast impact on this world also attempt to understand my work. I make it to communicate with others and those struggling with “otherness.”