KEES HOLTERMAN

Kees Holterman (b. 1994) is an American artist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Holterman’s work spans drawing, painting, sculpture, and video, and explores an obsession with narratives. His themes include domesticity, distance, relationships, family, identity, and cultural integration.

For the past year, Holterman has lived and worked in the Netherlands, a country where he holds citizenship but has limited cultural understanding. As the son of an immigrant mother, Holterman has ventured to the Netherlands to study his identity through family heritage, societal navigation, and attempted assimilation. He has found artistic influence from sharing personal stories at international storytelling events, making cultural comparisons that highlight his own experiences worth telling.

While his recent explorations have shed new light on his work, Holterman’s vision is greatly influenced by the majority of his life spent in Pennsylvania. He honors his roots and the influences of Social Realist and Folk Art, skateboarding culture, and the rich heritage of 20th-century Southeastern Pennsylvania artists, using these as aesthetic forces to inform his work while navigating new forms, directions, and narratives.

His work has been exhibited across the United States, including at PULP; ArtSpace at Untitled; Lone Gallery; and Space 1026, among others. He has been featured in publications such as New American Paintings and was a finalist for The Hopper Prize.