Joseph Holston's cubist abstractionist style has evolved over a fine arts career spanning over thirty-five years. A native Washingtonian, Holston grew up in the historic Hawkins Lane community in Chevy Chase, Maryland, later moving with his family to the Washington, D. C. He worked for eight years in advertising and commercial art, while studying and developing his skills as a painter. Following summer study in 1971 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Holston left the field of commercial art to become a full-time studio artist.

While his paintings are colorful and painterly, his etchings are more about line, pattern and texture. He recently completed a cycle of paintings and etchings titled Color in Freedom: Journey along the Underground Railroad, which is currently on national tour. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has exhibited at numerous institutions, including the Washington County Museum of Fine Art, Maryland; the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; the Butler Institute of American Art, Ohio; the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture, Baltimore; the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum; the Fort Worth Museum of Fine Art, Texas; and the African-American Museum of Philadelphia.

Works by Joseph Holston are included in many public and private collections. Among these are the permanent collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Washington County Museum of Fine Art, Maryland; the Yale University Art Gallery; the Butler Institute of American Art; the Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design; the Lyndon B. Johnson Library at the University of Texas; Howard University, the University of Maryland University College; the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland; and New York’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

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