Allison Leigh Holt (b. 1972) is a cross-disciplinary artist based in Oakland, CA. Working at the intersection of sculpture, video, installation, and performance, she pursues a dialogue between divergent ways of experiencing, comprehending, and describing reality. Holt has received numerous awards from institutions including the U.S. Department of State (Fulbright Fellowship, Indonesia), Djerassi Resident Artist Program, the San Francisco Arts Commission, the David Bermant Foundation, Cemeti Institute for Art + Society (Indonesia), the Experimental Television Center, and the North Dakota Museum of Art. She has been nominated for the SFMOMA SECA Award, the Eureka Fellowship, and the Smithsonian Artists Research Fellowship (2015, ’16 finalist). She was a resident researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (2016) and is an upcoming resident artist at the Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science + Technology.
Holt has exhibited, screened, and performed her work at SFMOMA, Stanford University, Anthology Film Archives (NYC), Cemeti Institute for Art + Society (solo, Indonesia), The North Dakota Museum of Art (solo), the Boston Cyberarts Festival, San Francisco Cinematheque, Axiom Gallery for New and Experimental Media (solo, Boston), the Urban Screens Conference (Melbourne), and the Yogyakarta International New Media Festival. She has presented at cellsBUTTON(s) and Video Vortex conferences in Indonesia, the Cultural Studies Association Conference, the 20th Annual Science of Consciousness Conference, and Imagining the Universe: Cosmology in Art and Science at Stanford Arts Institute. At the 2016 UND Writers Conference, she was in conversation with science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson and theoretical physicist Brian Greene.
Holt served as the Vice President of San Francisco Cinematheque’s Board of Directors from 2015 – 2017, and is a media art educator/mentor to neurodivergent individuals. She studied at The Evergreen State College (BA) and Massachusetts College of Art (MFA).