This season’s Soundwaves Gallery: THE HE(ART) OF NASHVILLE continues to grow with another stunning addition to the Starting XI, a collection of 11 specialty artworks commissioned by Nashville SC and created by local Nashville artists using soccer-related items. Each piece will be unveiled throughout the 2025 season and auctioned off at its conclusion, with proceeds benefiting the Nashville SC Community Fund.
Today, we’re thrilled to introduce work from Nashville-based artist Emily Holt.
Cone Flower
Emily Holt
A relief sculpture created using a hand-cut series of wooden discs stacked, topped with a plastic field marker disc. The outside is covered with found objects and dyed celluclay (ground paper mache) to cover the orange and wooden discs. The piece is intended to be mounted on the wall. The hole in the field marker is left uncovered so viewers may peer inside to see a little scene.
About the Artist
Emily Holt was born in Memphis, TN in 1975. She received her Bachelor of Fine Art Degree from Middle Tennessee State University in 1999 and her Masters of Fine Art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001. Her studio practice includes painting, drawing, collage, wood-working, sculpture, puppetry, and book art.
Emily moved to Nashville, TN in 2003 and has been teaching middle school and high art at the University School of Nashville for 21 years. Her studio and teaching practice often go hand in hand. The materials and class projects she creates for middle and high school students spill over into her work and vice versa.
Starting XI
This piece is now on view now as part of the Starting XI at the Soundwaves Gallery in GEODIS Park, displayed alongside THE HE(ART) OF NASHVILLE, a rotating exhibition of 44 works by 44 local artists curated in partnership with the Arts & Business Council in collaboration with a three-person curatorial committee comprised of local arts leaders Michael J. McBride, Artist, Illustrator, Printmaker, Painter, and Instructor of Art at Tennessee State University; Amanda H. Hellman, Director of the Vanderbilt University Museum of Art; and Michael Mitchell (aka mikewindy), Artist and Art Education Coordinator at Tennessee State University.