Martin Holman

Martin Holman has been a freelance writer and arts management consultant since 1992. Previously he was head of development at London’s Camden Arts Centre, 1990-2 (and a consultant thereafter), and before that at the Whitechapel Art Gallery (1985-8). He co-organised the first museum show in Britain by Michelangelo Pistoletto (1991) and co-selected Peter Lanyon: Air, Land & Sea, a national touring exhibition for the South Bank Centre (1992-3).

As writer and editor, he has contributed to publications about Mark Gertler, Peter Lanyon, Kim Lim, Terry Setch, Keith Wilson, Jamie Shovlin, Alexis Harding, Danny Rolph and other artists, and to many periodicals since 1979, including Artscribe, Literary Review, THES and the literary journal, the London Magazine. In 1980-1 he was galleries editor for Out West, Bristol’s fortnightly listings magazine (now Venue) and was guest-editor of the contemporary art magazine Miser & Now in 2007.

He has published on average 15 articles each year in recent years, and is a member of the British section of AICA, the international association of art critics. He is the author of two substantial monographs about contemporary British painters: Terry Setch and Graham Crowley were published by Lund Humphries in 2009. Other recent subjects for his contributions to museum and gallery publications include Sotiris Panousakis and Gilberto Zorio.

Projects have included administering public art commissions, contributing to Lottery-related gallery capital planning, retail bookselling and senior management in the fine art book printing industry. He attended Bristol University, graduating with first-class joint honours, and the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.

He is director of Art Works in Wimbledon, set up in 2005 to commission visual art in strategically significant south-west London. In 2000-7 he organised six public art commissions, including one for a permanent artwork, by artists Richard Rome, Flor Kent, Keith Wilson, Jon Griffiths, Martin Newth and with Richard Woods in Wimbledon, a project that was listed among the top London exhibitions in summer 2005 by the Guardian and the Independent national newspapers.

Among his voluntary memberships, he was chairman of Milton Keynes Gallery (2004-7), trustee and director of the Milton Keynes Theatre & Gallery Company (2004-7), trustee of the Wimbledon Civic Theatre Trust, chairing its projects group (2003-8), and a member of the advisory board of The Drawing Room, London. He was a governor and trustee of Wimbledon School of Art (2000-6).

He has collaborated with performance artist Jefford Horrigan on projects in London and Preston and, as a jazz vocalist, has recorded two albums and written about jazz singers.