Draft:Stephen Holman

Stephen Holman (Born 1962) is an Anglo-American artist based in California. His painting, stop-motion animation, and performance art has been exhibited, screened, and staged throughout the world. Holman launched his art career as an active part of the legendary 1980s Lower East Side art scene in New York City, where he formed the performance art ensemble Torture Chorus in 1985. He moved to Los Angeles in 1987, where he co-founded performance art troupe Theatre Carnivale and worked as an animator on CBS's Pee Wee's Playhouse, MTV's Liquid Television, Nickelodeon's KaBlam!, and Kids' WB's Phantom Investigators. His recent focus is on paintings of the underwater world, as well as commissions. Holman currently serves as director of Dove Biscuit Studio, located in The Last Bookstore in downtown Los Angeles.

Biographical Background

Holman spent his youth drawing and painting in Hastings, in East Sussex, England, until he studied fine art at The University of East London, UK, where he wrote his thesis on the industrial music group Throbbing Gristle. Holman traveled to New York City at age 21 to show his films at the New York Film Festival Downtown. Inspired by the explosive East Village art scene, in 1984 he decided to stay in New York, where he DJ-ed, created art, and screened experimental art films in underground bars and nightclubs.

Early Work

In 1986, Holman formed his first performance art ensemble, Torture Chorus, which staged shows in popular NYC venues such as 8BC, The Kitchen, Danceteria, and Franklin Furnace. Holman appeared with Torture Chorus at D.N.A. Lounge in San Francisco on June 11, 1986, in a performance that also included Andy Somma and Hilary Cummings.

In 1987, Holman co-founded "splattervillian" performance art troupe Theatre Carnivale in Los Angeles. Described as a neo-vaudevillian, radical cabaret, Theatre Carnivale juxtaposed performance artists such as Johanna Went, John Fleck, and The Kipper Kids alongside exotic entertainment such as sword-swallowing strippers and professional magicians.

A 1989 Torture Chorus performance at New York's Franklin Furnace, Breakfast With The Moors Murderers, was poorly received with a scathing review in Artforum. But on January 24, 1992, Torture Chorus performed at the Hollywood Palladium in Hollywood, at Rock For Choice, a benefit concert featuring big-name acts such as Fugazi, Lunachicks, Pearl Jam, L7, Kim Gordon, and Alex Winter. Proceeds benefitted the Feminist Majority Foundation & Fund.

Holman returned to New York's avant-garde performance scene to present Self-Obliteration in Human Form at The Kitchen from December 6-9, 1990. Holman described the evening as an exploration of “the complex web of disguises and hypocrisies that we create in order to conceal the frightening condition of humanity from ourselves.” Actors dressed as bugs, animals, biblical figures, and scientists acted out the ecosystems and food-chains that make up the universe. The show featured Lucy Sexton and Ann Iobst of Dancenoise, David West, Donita Sparks, and music by Bond Bergland and Kris Force.

Animation

Holman has created, directed, written and designed stop-motion and mixed-media animation for television. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Holman worked as an artist for the CBS comedy series Pee-Wee's Playhouse. He created the three-part segment "Joe Normal" for a Season 2 episode of MTV's animation showcase Liquid Television in 1992. Life with Loopy was a mixed media segment featured on all four seasons of the Nickelodeon animated sketch comedy series KaBlam!.

Holman has also done work for Warner Brothers (Phantom Investigators), and Disney (The Bite-Sized Adventures of Sam Sandwich). Holman started a production company, (W)holesome Productions, with his wife and creative partner, Josephine Huang, in 1993. Huang is known for her animation work on notable productions such as The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, The Life Aquatic, and Anomalisa.

Painting

Holman has shown paintings throughout his career, and his fine art projects have been lauded over the years in The New York Times, SF Weekly, Wired, Paper Magazine, LA Weekly and The Village Voice. Since 2006, he has had six solo painting exhibitions in Southern California, including a career retrospective at Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica. Holman was featured in the group exhibition "Apres Garde" at San Francisco's Gallery 1988 in 2008. In 2014, his work was exhibited at The Horse Hospital in London, UK. In 2020, his work was part of Feral, a two-person exhibition with Rick Castro at Lisa Derrick Fine Arts in Los Angeles. His complete curriculum vitae and artwork examples can be seen on his website, stephenholmanart.com.

Holman also specializes in pet portrait commissions and has painted more than 150 pet portraits. In 2022, he was a guest judge in the Queen's Jubilee Dog Show in Twickenham, London, UK. That same year, the El Segundo Department of Arts and Culture presented "Best in Show: Dog Portraits by Stephen Holman" at the El Segundo Public Library.

Holman’s current work focuses mainly on paintings of the underwater world. Inspired by 25 years of experience as a scuba diver in California, his aquatic artworks capture the visual beauty of oceanic lifeforms and underwater landscapes, and the experience of being submerged in the powerful forces of the Pacific Ocean that scuba diving culture provides. In May 2026, he exhibited at the Scuba Show at California's Long Beach Convention Center. Holman illustrated a children's book, Scuba Cats, about a clever cat duo and a seriously sarcastic fish who team up to defeat underwater thieves. Scuba Cats was written by Janet Tashjian and published in September 2026 by Hachette Book Group.

Holman regularly shows his artwork at Dove Biscuit Studio, a gallery in DTLA's The Last Bookstore, where he has served as director since taking over from founder Robin McGeough, who passed away from cancer in 2025.