About Carli

Carli is a mixed media artist working in oils, wax, acrylics, sand, ash, mica, and earthen pigments, much of which is hand-gathered and hand-ground. It's slow, tactile work, and it means her paintings are made of the land as much as they are about it. Rather than depicting a place directly, she distills its energy, rhythm, and color into layered abstractions, textures that dissolve into their surroundings, symbols that surface and recede, forms that wash away in wide swaths of color.

She thinks often of the moon while she works, not as a symbol so much as a presence, pulling at things the way the Moon pulls at tides. That same push and pull shapes her process: intuitive and meditative, guided by light, the strength of stone, the softness of meadow grass, the fleeting change of dawn into dusk. Her compositions unfold like dream-spaces where memory, myth, and material meet. Each piece is a small devotion to the cycles and rhythms that shape both the land and the human spirit.

Carli Holcomb CV

Education

2016 — Master of Fine Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
2014 — Post-Baccalaureate, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY
2013 — Bachelor of Fine Art, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY
2013 — Associate of Art, Casper College, Casper, WY

Solo Exhibitions

2026 — Resonance, Red Peak Gallery, Casper, WY
2026 — Walk Me Home (two-person show with Shane Swenson), ART 321, Casper, WY
2025 — Echoes, Scarlow's Gallery, Casper, WY
2023 — Edgelines, ART 321, Casper, WY
2021 — Confluence (invitational), curated by Valerie Innella Maiers, Goodstein Gallery, Casper, WY
2020 — By the Light of the Moon (invitational), curated by Claire Marlow, Scarlow's Gallery, Casper, WY
2019 — Carli Holcomb Jewelry (jewelry line release), curated by Katie Ukrop, Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA
2018 — Earth [bound] (invitational), curated by Valerie Innella Maiers, Goodstein Gallery, Casper, WY
2018 — Carli Holcomb Jewelry (jewelry line release), curated by Katie Ukrop, Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA
2018 — Transient (invitational), curated by Adam Dorland, Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA
2017 — After Dark, curated by Amanda Dalla Villa Adams, True F. Luck Gallery, Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Richmond, VA
2016 — Black Moon (invitational), curated by Adam Dorland, Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA
2016 — Unknowable Terrain (MFA Thesis Show), curated by Owen Duffy, The Depot Gallery, Richmond, VA

Group Exhibitions

2025 — Travels Through Slovenia, ART 321, Casper, WY
2024 — Rock Paper Scissors (invitational), curated by Kathleen Willie, Red Peak Gallery, Casper, WY
2022 — Faculty Exhibition, curated by Kathleen Willie, West Wind Gallery, Casper, WY
2022 — Sea of Tranquility (installation), ART 321, Casper, WY
2022 — Casper College Faculty Exhibition, Zahradnicek Gallery, Casper, WY
2022 — Faculty Exhibition, curated by Kathleen Willie, Red Peak Gallery, Casper, WY
2021 — Anniversary Exhibition, curated by Kathleen Willie, West Wind Gallery, Casper, WY
2020 — Faculty Exhibition (invitational), curated by Kathleen Willie, Red Peak Gallery, Casper, WY
2020 — Hello There (invitational), curated by Katie Ukrop, Quirk Gallery, Charlottesville, VA
2019 — Current Art Fair, curated by Adam Dorland, Hohman Design Building, Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA
2018 — Visual Arts Department Faculty Exhibition, curated by Valerie Innella Maiers, Goodstein Art Gallery, Casper, WY
2018 — Dubrovnik, curated by Valerie Innella Maiers, Zahradnicek Gallery, Casper, WY
2016 — Unknowable Terrain, The Depot Gallery, Richmond, VA, curated by Owen Duffy
2016 — Young and Artful (invitational), curated by the Visual Arts Creative Ambassadors, Visual Arts Center of Richmond, VA
2016 — VOLUME (invitational traveling show), curated by Leigh Suggs, LIGHT art + design, Chapel Hill, NC
2016 — Current Art Fair, curated by Adam Dorland, Hohman Design Building, Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA
2016 — VOLUME (invitational), curated by Leigh Suggs, Quirk Hotel and Gallery, Richmond, VA
2016 — Metalsmith Magazine, cover image, juried by Eva Eisler, Lauren Fensterstock, and Lori Talcott; essay by Susie Silbert; "Exhibition in Print: Shifting Sites"
2016 — JAX (juried), juried by Stefanie Fedor, Jacksonville Center for the Arts, Floyd, VA
2016 — Nature Craft (online), curated by Tanya Dutt, Garland Magazine, Melbourne, Australia
2015 — Mourning Works, curated by Amy Yoes, Mildred's Lane, Narrowsburg, NY
2015 — Death Complex(ity), curated by Amy Yoes and Paul Bartow, Mildred's Lane, Narrowsburg, NY
2015 — Warehouse 22, Philip Morris Tobacco Packing Warehouse, Richmond, VA
2015 — Pallet Cleanser, Philip Morris Tobacco Packing Warehouse, Richmond, VA

Teaching Experience

2017–Present — Instructor of Sculpture and Metalsmithing, Casper College, Casper, WY. Courses: Metalsmithing I–V, 3D Design, Printmaking, Sculpture I & II, Professional Practices in the Arts, General Studio Arts.
2016–2017 — Adjunct Instructor / Instructor of Record, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA. Courses: Space Research, Metals Project Course, Art Foundations, Technology Lab Instructor.

Grants, Residencies & Affiliations

Member, Ethical Metalsmiths
Member, Society of North American Goldsmiths
Center for Craft
2026 — Innovation in Digital Teaching Award, Casper College
2020 — Wyoming Arts Council, Artist Fellowship Honorable Mention
2018 — Center for Craft, Nominated for Emerging Artist Award
2017 — Adjunct Faculty Research Grant, Virginia Commonwealth University
2017 — Visual Arts Center of Richmond Residency, Richmond, VA
2016 — Quirk Residency, Quirk Hotel and Gallery, Richmond, VA
2016 — Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Virginia Commonwealth University
2016 — SNAG Featured Maker of the Week
2015 — Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Virginia Commonwealth University
2015 — Dean's Award Travel Grant, Virginia Commonwealth University
2015 — Mildred's Lane Fellowship, VCU and Mildred's Lane, Narrowsburg, NY
2015 — Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Conference Scholarship, VCU and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME
2014 — Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Virginia Commonwealth University

Publications

Casper Star Tribune (2020)
Richmond Times Dispatch (2017)
Style Weekly (2017)
Drain Magazine (2017)
Liivee Art Magazine (2017)
Garland Magazine (2017, 2016)
The New York Times (2016)
Metalsmith Magazine, cover (2016)

Permanent Collections

Capital One Corporate Collection
Casper College, Casper, WY
Quirk Hotel, Richmond, VA
University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY
Coe Library, Laramie, WY
Private collections throughout Virginia, Wyoming, Washington D.C., and North Carolina