Juliet Holland

Juliet Holland (June 6, 1937- November 25, 2017) was born in Buffalo, New York, to James Bell Henry and Margaret Koppel Henry. She grew up in Wellesley Hills, MA. A longtime resident of lower Manhattan on Bleeker Street, she spent summers in her Saugatuck Shores, Westport, CT, beach cottage, taking inspiration from the sea.

Juliet was an accomplished and widely exhibited mixed media artist, most notably in Tokyo, NYC, Connecticut and Provincetown, MA. She was in well over one hundred one-person and group exhibitions. Her work is in museums, corporate and private collections. Her technique incorporated rich layers of sand, paints, clay, powders, metallics and natural elements, which were built up, then scratched and scraped back down, creating layers, evoking time. “… my work focuses on the process of transformation – from disintegration and decay to a new form of beauty.”

She was a co-founder of Art Bridge, a program that established an artist exchange between Japan and the U.S., and ran for twelve years. Holland was formally recognized by the Mayor of Sakai City as the first non-Asian artist in the Sakai City Municipal Art Collection. Juliet was also a curator of several exhibitions, and was on the board of directors of Lamia Ink!, a non-profit organization dedicated to the arts. Aside from her career as an artist, she had a passion for music, swimming, Avant Garde performance and creative expression. She was a voracious reader and loved the ocean.

Artist Statement

On behalf of Juliet Holland’s family, I, Mark Nickerson, her son and her daughter Avery Johnson were grateful and honored to help organize an exhibition of her work called Constructing Memory at the Contemporary Art Center in Peoria in 2018. Over the last 15 years of my living in Peoria, I had wanted to have my mother, Juliet Holland, exhibit her work here.

Her creative vision and artwork represent her life, while her disease does not. Since her passing in November, 2017, my sister, Avery, and I continue to expose and promote her work to a wider audience in the Midwest and California.

My mother’s original diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s was changed to Lewy Body Dementia with Parkinson’s. LBD is a little harder to diagnose but is gaining attention. Others who had suffered with Lewy Body Dementia include Robin Williams, Estelle Getty and Casey Kasem. At 80 years old, died peacefully on Saturday, November 25, 2017, in Peoria, IL, where she lived the last year of her life.

Mom and I spoke openly about her disease, especially as she sought to understand what was happening to her. She wanted to ensure that research into this disease continued, and that is why we want to share proceeds with the Alzheimer’s Association from the sale of mom’s work.