Bio
John Holmes
b. 1996, Tampa, FL
Lives and works in Nashville, TN
John Holmes is a media artist whose work investigates how technological systems shape intimacy and perception, exploring how desire collides with the conditions of alienation. His multidisciplinary practice spans sculpture, installation, video, collage, and performance, creating experiential environments that treat light, sound, and software as sculptural materials and invite participants into spaces of play and reflection. Holmes’s work has been shown in exhibitions and performances across Nashville, including Material & Immaterial at New Media Nashville, Deconstructing The Moving Image at COOP Gallery, and the immersive audiovisual environment Nashville Drone with Chatterbird. His talks and workshops, such as We Won’t Get the AI We Want, extend his practice into public dialogue around art and technology. He is a recipient of the 2025 Artville Public Artist Grant, a 2025 Nashville Design Week Ambassador, and a member of COOP Gallery, with his work recently featured in The Nashville Scene.
CV
EDUCATION
2020 — BASc, Audio, SAE Institute Nashville, Nashville, TN
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 — Material & Immaterial, New Media Nashville, Nashville, TN
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 — Contemporary Shamanism, Defy Film Festival, Nashville, TN
2025 — Among Creatures, Art Between the Avenues, Nashville, TN
2025 — Deconstructing the Moving Image, COOP Gallery, Nashville, TN
2025 — Feedback Loops, Free Nashville Poetry Library, Nashville, TN
2025 — Material & Immaterial 2, Buchanan Arts, Nashville, TN
AWARDS
2025 — Artville Public Artist Grant, Artville Artist Fund
2025 — Ambassador, Nashville Design Week
A/V PERFORMANCES
2025 — Nashville Drone, Chatterbird, Nashville, TN
2025 — Human Shaped, COOP Gallery, Nashville, TN
TALKS & WORKSHOPS
2028 — Art in the Data Driven Era, Vanderbilt University (Upcoming)
2026 — Intro to Interactive Media, Buchanan Arts (Upcoming)
2025 — Why New Media?, Lipscomb University (Upcoming)
2024 — We Won’t Get The AI We Want, New Media Nashville
2024 — The Myth of “I Can’t Code”, New Media Nashville
PRESS
2025 — “Welcome To Artville,” Carrington Fox, nFocus, August 14, 2025
2025 — “Can Nashville Stay Plugged Into New Media? The city’s new-media landscape has a clear leader in John ‘The Shaman’ Holmes,” Joe Nolan, Nashville Scene, July 29, 2025