Joseph Holston

Joseph Holston grew up in the small Black community of Hawkins Lane, in Chevy Chase, a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. His work reflects the strong sense of Black identity nurtured by his upbringing in that close-knit community. In 1960 the family moved to Washington, DC, where Holston was accepted into the commercial art program at Chamberlain Vocational High School.

Holston worked as a commercial artist/illustrator from 1964 to 1970. He also pursued independent study by enrolling in art classes throughout the Washington, DC area. These included classes with the noted portraitist Marcos Blahove (1928-2012). In the summer of 1971 Holston traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico to study with artist, Richard Vernon Goetz (1915-1991), a well-known portrait, landscape, and still-life painter.

Inspired by Rembrandt’s prints, Holston began creating etchings in 1974. Holston incorporates an array of visual effects in his etchings, through the use of hard ground, soft ground and aquatint, as in Woman with Pipe (1974), one of his first prints, now included in the permanent collection of The Phillips Collection in Washington, D. C. Other prints are included in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, among other museum collections.

Major solo exhibitions include the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, and the Federal Reserve Arts Program in Washington, D. C. He has been Artist-in-Residence at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, North Carolina A & T State University, and the Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette College.

Other public art institutions and museum that have the art of Joseph Holston in their permanent collections include The Baltimore Museum of Art, DuSable Museum of African American History, Federal Reserve Board Fine Art Collection, Georgia Museum of Art, Library of Congress Fine Print Collection, and countless others.

Public collections

• Amarillo Museum of Art
• Baltimore Museum of Art
• Butler Institute of American Art^[15]
• DuSable Museum of African American History
• Federal Reserve Board Fine Art Collection^[16]
• Georgia Museum of Art
• Library of Congress Fine Print Collection^[17][18]
• Honolulu Museum of Art
• Mount Holyoke College Art Museum^[19]
• North Carolina A&T State University
• Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
• Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture
• Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
• Smithsonian American Art Museum^[20][21]
• Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art
• The Phillips Collection^[22]
• United States Mission to the United Nations in Geneva
• University of Maryland Global Campus
• Washington County Museum of Fine Arts
• Yale University Art Gallery