Abigail Holloway

“I’ll mirror for you”

Patch-up
Heal
Recover
Acknowledge

Abigail Holloway is a South African artist, born in Johannesburg on the 3rd of December 2001. She grew up in the Freestate and moved back to Johannesburg to start and complete her Fine Arts degree at the
University of Witwatersrand. In 2023 she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts, where she spent an additional year receiving her honors in Fine Arts at the university in 2024. Abigail spent two and a half years of her undergraduate, working as a bartender and then as an Au Pair, to fund her studies. In 2023, she was one of the winners of the Wits Young Artist Award.
Her work more specifically is invested in that of abuse in all forms. Physical and psychological and emotionally based traumas are the key concepts of her body of work. She is interested in the body and using the body as a communicator and objects as a proxy of the body. Indicating trauma not as reenactments of trauma but as photographic documentation of emotions and responses that she has experienced through traumatic events of abuse. As an artist she tries to address not relive her experiences through
photographic and videographic confrontation, encouraging healing through these artistic forms.
Holloway continues this practice and works alongside similar artists and peers in her degree,
investigating similar avenues and ways in introducing healing of traumatic events. Her work can be triggering, so she tries to establish ways of communicating this in a subtle and relatable way without creating vicarious or secondary trauma. She is currently busy with a collaborative body of work where she will introduce other artists that work with
introducing methods of communication with this topic and also sharing their story with trauma. Artists
of different backgrounds and stories to be given an opportunity to express their reflection.