Artist and poet Amanda Holiday was born in Sierra Leone and came to live in the north of England at the age of 5. She studied Fine Art at Wimbledon School of Art in the 1980s and became involved in the UK Black Arts movement. She went on to exhibit her artwork nationally before moving into film and scriptwriting. Between 2001-10 she lived in Cape Town and worked in educational television.

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Holiday’s chapbook The Art Poems was published in 2018 and other writing has appeared in journals internationally. In 2020, she founded poetry press Black Sunflowers focussed on publishing the work of outstanding women and black poets from around the world. She is currently completing a Techne AHRC funded PhD in Poetry, Race and Art at the University of Brighton

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Holiday was awarded the Peut Guard Artist Award for 2024. In early 2025, she undertook a research fellowship to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.  Her 1987 artwork Red Riding Hood was exhibited in Women in Revolt!  which toured to Whitworth, Manchester in March 2025.  Her artworks were included in group shows Bloom Song and Gloam  both with Vivienne Roberts Projects and her work 'The Sense' is currently on show in the East Wing Biennial.

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Amanda is one of the artists selected for the forthcoming Malta Biennale, 26 and is represented by Felix & Spear gallery, London.

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To view portfolio (request password) please get in touch via the contact form. For all art or other enquiries, please get in touch with Felix and Spear.