CURRICULUM VITAE
Tselote Tassama Holley
Born: 1997, Washington, D.C.
Email: tselote10@gmail.com
Portfolio: tseloteth.com
ARTIST ABSTRACT
An interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores the intersectional topographies of matrilineal lineage, nomadic geography, ecological memory, and color theory. Her work utilizes creative migration as a generative state—weaving poetry, linguistic blueprints, and sensory audio fields with material studio executions including site-specific installations, raw-pigment painting, and sculpture.
EDUCATION
2019 — Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Studio Art, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
2023 — 200-Hour Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT), Yoga District, Washington, D.C. (Specialization in Sound & Somatics Practice)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018 — Time Loops, Railroad Square Warehouse, Tallahassee, FL
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2018 — Co-Curator, Seeing Red, 621 Gallery, Railroad Square Art Park, Tallahassee, FL
Co-conceptualized, designed, and executed a curated group exhibition exploring the somatic, psychological, and spatial impact of red hues within contemporary studio practices.
SELECTED & CURATED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 — Helena Art Walk, Curiouser & Curiouser, Helena, MT
2023 — Helena Art Walk, Cottonwood ALC, Helena, MT
2023 — Abstracts, Light, Space, and Time Art Gallery (14th Annual Digital Survey)
2019 — Let’s Try Listening Again, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2018 — Seeing Red, 621 Gallery, Railroad Square Art Park, Tallahassee, FL (Featured Artist & Co-Curator)
2018 — BFA Expo, Phyllis Straus Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
SITE-SPECIFIC INTERVENTIONS & INDEPENDENT STUDIO PROJECTS
2026 — Site-Specific Rituals & Offerings, Continuous temporal land interventions utilizing raw earth, local stones, water, and organic seeds executed across international nomadic residency locations.
2026 — Passage (Grid on Grid), Multidisciplinary studio series integrating analog photography and geometric studies exploring landscape and impermanence.
2025 — Lotus Hands / Spirit in Color, Narrative painting series utilizing raw pigments and mineral color theory to analyze structural themes of matrilineal lineage, ritual, and contemporary womanhood.
2024 — Present — Soundscapes & Atmospheric Frequencies, Ongoing independent audio research incorporating localized field recordings and spoken poetry tracking geographical memory and audience somatic reception.
AWARDS & HONORS
2018 — Ann Kirn Art Award, Florida State University
2018 — BFA Honorary Award, Florida State University
CREATIVE COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS & FACILITATION
2022 — One-on-One Narrative Workshop, Lead Consultant on 2D drawing, story-mapping, and ecological world-building design frameworks.
2019–2021 — Visual Arts Educator, Radiant Life Academy, Pyramid Studios,. Developed and led foundational art curricula for grades K5–8. Facilitated adaptive, therapeutic studio art practices for adults with physical and cognitive disabilities.
2017 — The Closer: The Art Experience, Facilitator. An immersive painting workshop designed to foster collaborative, emotionally supportive, and therapeutic environments. Sponsored by the Center for Academic Retention & Enhancement Program (C.A.R.E), FSU.
CONTEMPORARY ARTIST BIO
Tselote Tassama Holley (b. 1997, Washington, D.C.) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores the intersectional topographies of matrilineal lineage, nomadic geography, and ecological memory. Raised in the city of Washington, DC and later along the Florida coast, working across internally international landscapes, her work utilizes creative migration as a generative state—piecing together fragments of shifting environments to visually decode internal psychological and spiritual terrains.
Holley’s structural methodology is fluid and non-linear, operating as a bi-directional dialogue between poetry, linguistic blueprints, and physical material execution. Her work manifests across diverse mediums, incorporating painting, drawing, sculpture, and site-specific installations that integrate raw environmental matter—including earth, water, stones, and seeds—as active historical archives. Central to her studio research is the spatial manipulation of acoustics and immersive, localized soundscapes, utilizing field recordings and atmospheric frequencies to intentionally modulate audience somatic reception within the gallery ecosystem.
Following her degree in Studio Art from Florida State University, Holley spent years cultivating community spaces for creative expression—co-curating and exhibiting as a featured artist in the group exhibition Seeing Red at Tallahassee's historic 621 Gallery, teaching adaptive art practices to adults with disabilities at Pyramid Studios, and leading youth arts development at Radiant Life Academy. Her deep grounding as a certified Hatha Yoga Teacher, and as a Sound and Somatic Arts Practitioner informs her approach to the gallery space, viewing the creative process not as rigid fabrication, but as an act of prayer, an invocation of ancestral memory, and an invitation into an ancient, illuminated perspective.