b. 1979, Welland, Canada

In 2007, Thrush Holmes exploded on to the contemporary art scene when he opened Thrush Holmes Empire, a vast exhibition space on Queen Street West in Toronto. Holmes funded the purchase by selling his paintings on eBay under the pseudonym ‘Truman Couture’ – a move that simultaneously mocked and exploited the velocity with which certain emerging modern artists generate hype among collectors. Since then, his work has only increased in desirability; on large-scale panels, Holmes transforms still lives and reclining nudes into effervescent icons of art making. Often embellished with snaking tubes of neon light, Holmes’s works are attention-grabbing monuments to impulse and excess.

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