Artist and Storyteller

Artist Bio

Holly Tappen

Studio 504, 2205 California Street NE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55418

(651) 399-3278

hollytappen@gmail.com

www.hollytappen.com

"To paint The Dance itself without painting The Dancer - that is my challenge."

Holly Tappen is an oil painter of figurative and abstract art. She studied Art History at Emory University in Atlanta and Paris. She paints in her studio in NE Minneapolis every day. On Monday nights she practices art and researches Leonardo's techniques at The Art Academy, Inc. in St. Paul, while every Sunday she draws the live models at the Studio 103 Drawing Co-op, hosted by Florence Hill in NE Minneapolis. She has worked on her art with mentors such as Rochelle Woldorsky, David Feinberg, Alexandra Rosenmann, Greg Lipelt, and Suzann Beck.

Minneapolis/St. Paul is her permanent home now, after having lived in Atlanta, New Orleans, Milwaukee, Paris, New York, Orlando, and on the road with Renaissance Festivals. She grew up in a family of anthropologists, and travel is important to her art.

She painted in such varied countries as Chechnya, Dominican Republic, Bosnia, Mexico, most of Europe, and the country of Georgia. These influences lead to a sense of place in her paintings and collages, with interesting stories built into the pictures. 

In the arts, she has been an actor, playwright, set painter, costume designer-builder, and fiction writer. She has focused her time and energy in the last decade on honing high-quality paintings. She has exhibited her work in a number of solo and group shows in Minnesota, a permanent series at the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis Anthropology Department, and a piece permanently displayed at the Hinckley Fire Museum.