abstract art

Michael Holding (mh) is an abstract painter based in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. His work explores the tension between order and chaos through bold colour, layered texture, and deliberate contrast. With a background in Fine Arts and Cultural Studies, Holding approaches abstraction as a site of inquiry—an evolving space where dream states, systems, memories, and the natural world intersect.

His paintings emerge from a process of addition and erasure. Layers are built, disrupted, and reformed, creating surfaces that function as visual records of time and decision-making. This method reflects an overarching philosophy of refinement: removing the unnecessary to reveal the essential.

Working in a screen-saturated world, Holding uses painting as a way to slow down, reconnect, and excavate the internal terrain. Each piece becomes an invitation for viewers to pause, reflect, and engage with their own sensory experience. Rather than offering representation, his work offers resonance—an abstract echo of emotion, memory, and the systems that shape us.