Holly Parotti

Holly Parotti (born 1972, Nassau, Bahamas) is a mixed-media artist working primarily in printmaking, photography, video and installation. Her work explores self-portraiture through objects and language, often looking specifically at loneliness and security. Parotti’s work is sensitive to the performance of exhibition and she is conscious of her audience; creating time-sensitive, interactive objects.

Parotti received her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia in 1997. In 2011, at Popop Studios International Centre for the Visual Arts, she presented a portfolio of digital images under the title this is not a fairytale. The exhibition was an exploration of the accessibility of the process of fine art imagery through use of the iPhone. Parotti was one of four international recipients of the Royal Over Seas League’s fine arts scholarships, allowing her to spend six weeks in residency in Scotland and England. She returned in 2012 to exhibit the portfolio of work that was inspired by the residency at gallery@Oxo, South Bank, London. In 2015, Parotti participated in the group exhibitions Field Notes: Extracts at MoCADA, New York and Nassau Calling: Art in The Bahamas Re-Visited at HilgerBrotKunsthalle, Austria.

Parotti has had a long career as a curator. She was the Collections Manager & Curatorial Assistant at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas and Curator of the D’Aguilar Art Foundation, Nassau, The Bahamas. She was also one of the Co-Curators of Liverpool Biennial 2010: Three Moments and curator of The Carbon Footprint: Bahamian Artists’ 21st Century Response to the Environment, The Fifth National Exhibition (NE5) and Ras Ishi: Diaries Unlocked (both National Art Gallery of The Bahamas).