Bio

Wiley Holton is a Boston-based abstract artist whose work is an exploration of geometry, color theory, and mental health. She has worked in oil, acrylic, graphite, printmaking, clay, and wood. Born in Boston in 1997, Wiley graduated with distinction from Colby College with a major in studio art and a minor in mathematics. She received the President’s Purchase Prize for her painting “Circumferences of the Void” featured in the Colby College Senior Capstone Exhibition in 2019. This piece remains in the permanent collection of the Colby College Museum of Art. Wiley has since been awarded Artist of the Year in both 2022 and 2023 at the Cambridge Art Association’s Members Shows. She was also a featured emerging artist at the Boston International Fine Art Show in 2022.

www.wileyholton.com ‍

Statement

In my newest series ”Motion,” I am exploring the concept of inertia and how that relates to ADHD. I’m sure most of you remember hearing the phrase “an object in motion stays in motion” from highschool physics. I take it another step to say “a body in motion stays in motion. People with ADHD can have a difficult time transitioning between tasks. This can be mistaken for “laziness”. For example, if I’m sitting on the couch eating breakfast and know I have to get up to get ready to work, a lot of the time I just can’t. I know I need to, and I even WANT to get up. But my body remains seated. Or, I found in college that if I leaned on my forearms on my lofted bed, Id get stuck doom-scrolling online for hours. Though my body may be still, my mind is still whirring. I have found that the only way to counteract this is to keep my body moving too—to move from task to task without physically pausing (unless I’m trying to take an intentional break). It’s a daily challenge that I’m sure a lot of people can relate to. My “Motion” series aims to reflect the duality of my mind moving while my body stays where it is and yearns to move forward.