Holly Garbett (b. 2001, Birmingham) is an oil painter based in London. Her practice centres on family, using old photographs to explore memory, nostalgia and personal history. Through painting, she revisits fleeting moments that might otherwise be lost, translating personal archives into emotionally charged works.

Working primarily from family photographs, she uses painting not only to preserve memories, but to re-experience and reinterpret these moments. Her work explores how emotional weight accumulates over time - how feelings of comfort, love and longing intensify through distance and reflection .

Hands and faces often become focal points within her compositions, while surrounding forms soften and fragment like fading memories. Working in loose, expressive oil paint, she explores clarity and distortion, reflecting the unstable nature of remembering.

While rooted in autobiography, her work speaks to broader experiences of home, family and emotional inheritance, evoking the quiet ache of nostalgia where love, loss, comfort and longing coexist.

Exhibitions

Sophie Tea Art Brewing Exhibition, 2026

Residencies

Sophie Tea Art Brewing Residency, 2026

Education

BArch Architecture, University of Nottingham

UAL Foundation Diploma in Art & Design