Tim Holmes

is the first American artist ever invited to exhibit solo at the world's largest art museum, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, where three of his sculptures remain on permanent exhibit. He has created sculpture for some of the world's peacemaking organizations from the United Nations to the Chinese dissident students of Tiananmen Square. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Jimmy Carter, President Vaclav Havel, and Coretta Scott King are among Holmes' best-known collectors.

Holmes's work primarily focuses on the human form, on the gesture as expression of greater human themes: the struggle for freedom, horror at inner and outer evils, the ferocity of hopelessness, the tenderness of love. Each artwork tells a story in muscle and metaphor, in gesture and meaning at once earthly and deeply spiritual.

His more recent works in film address his fascination with the sacred body illuminated with scriptures in a kind of sculptural poetry.

Holmes began sculpting in welded metal at age 11. He believes that art is the medicine that will help heal the world.

Video story

I believe that art can transform us in ways impossible through any other human activity.

Works of art are the footprints into the journey of aliveness in an endlessly stimulating world. The exclusively human gift of creativity makes us indeed God’s junior partners in the co-creation of a yet unfinished Universe.

Art has the magical capacity to make us aware of both the outer and inner worlds simultaneously, often so puzzling because while it can sometimes make no sense to our minds, it can feel so right to our souls; helping remind us that reason is too flimsy a tool to access the mystery. Art moves us on a level beneath comprehension.

In my work I attempt to access– through the metaphors of outer forms– the inner material beneath politics and personality that imbues everyday life with passionate richness. On that level we are all family, a truth of which the outer life leaves us forgetful, but of which art always reminds us. In the presence of a good work of art we experience a strange alchemy that can transform the confusing and painful into the beautiful and meaningful, reminding our souls through a silent, intimate exchange, that we are not– after all– alone.

Selected Solo Museum Exhibits

The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia, 1993-94
Coral Springs Museum of Art, Coral Springs, FL, 2003
Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1991 and 1986-7
Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada, 1997
Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, Montana, 1999-2000
Hockaday Museum of Art, Kalispell, Montana, 2000
Holter Museum of Art, Helena, Montana, 1996
Museum of Fine Arts, Univ. of Mont., Missoula, Montana, 1995

Awards and Honors:

Jeanette Rankin Peace Award, Rocky Mountain Institute for Peace Studies, 2000
Breadwinner Award, Wheat Montana, Three Forks, MT, 2000
Love the Arts Award, Flathead Arts Council, Kalispell, MT, 1999
Art Achievement Award, The Art Center School of Fine Arts, Helena, MT, 1995
Distinguished Service Award, Rocky Mountain College, Billings, MT, 1996
Lakota Women’s Peace Metal, Lakota Tribe, Rapid City, SD, 1988
Outstanding Alum Award, Rocky Mountain College, Billings, MT, 1987

Teaching / Lecturing Experience

Education and Training:

Master’s Program, Sir John Cass School of Art, London, 1981
B.A. in Fine Arts, Rocky Mountain College, Billings, Montana 1976
Apprenticed to welded steel sculptor, Lyndon F. Pomeroy, 1975

Born:

Rapid City, South Dakota, May 8, 1955

Selected Private Collections

Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu
President Jimmy Carter
Coretta Scott King
Vaclev Havel, President, New Czech Republic
Thabo Mbeki, President, South Africa
Gro Harlem Brundtland, Prime Minister of Norway
Madam Jehan Sadat, former First Lady of Egypt
Li Lu, Deputy leader of the Chinese Pro-Demoncracy Movement
Rosalyn Carter, former First Lady
Andrew Young, U.S. Ambassador to U.N., Mayor of Atlanta
Dr. Benjamin Spock
Norman Cousins
George Kennan, former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union
Edward Albee, playwright
Valentina Tereshkova, first woman in space
Mary Hart, "Entertainment Tonight" co-host
Sen. Mike Mansfield
Marianne Williamson, author and spiritual leader

Selected Public Commissions and Monuments:

U.N. Millennium Peace Prize for Women, U.N. Development Fund for Women, New York, NY, and International Alert, London, England, 2000
Welcome Home, A monument for the International Peace and Reconciliation Center on Robben Island, South Africa, the former prison where Nelson Mandela and thousands of others were imprisoned. 1997
Olympic Africa, (Cape Town's gift to the International Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland), 1997
The Cycle of Renewal, First Presbyterian Church, Pompano Beach, FL, 2002
Eleanor Roosevelt Living World Award, PeaceLinks, Wash., DC, 1994
China Peace, (Tianenman Sq. massacre memorial), China Information Center, Boston, MA, 1989
Physicians for Social Responsibility Peace Award, Washington, DC, 1987
Cross and Flame, St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Helena, MT, 1981-2005
Breathmill, Cloud Clipper, Kenetech Corp., San Francisco, CA, 1996
Cleopatra Rescues a Mariner, community of York, MT, 1994
The Spirit of BST, Billings Studio Theatre, Billings, MT. 1993
History of Horses, Sheraton Hotel, Billings, MT, 1980
Montage, Sheraton Hotel, Billings, MT, 1980
Bengal Tiger, Helena High School, Helena, MT, 1979
Anina’s Vision, (suspended sculpture), Williams Ltd., Kallispell, MT,1976

The artist, with some favorite family parts.