Julia Bland’s practice operates at the nexus between the traditions of painting and textile art. Incorporating a large range of techniques such as cutting, sewing, dying, weaving and painting, Bland experiments with the properties of materials such as wool, denim, linen, found fabric and canvas to create complex process-based artworks that blur the boundaries between the realms of weaving and painting.
Whilst embedded in the traditions of painting and weaving that infused her California upbringing and formal education in the Northeast of the United States, Bland also draws on her experience living in Morocco studying Middle Eastern weaving techniques and Sufism. The resulting artworks explore the fine line between abstraction and representation, geometry and symbolism, ornamentation and structure, creating layered and enigmatic compositions at the confluence of these diverse influences and traditions.
Julia Bland (b. Palo Alto, 1986) earned her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2008, and her MFA from Yale in 2012. She has been awarded The Milton and Sally Avery Fellowship, The Carol Scholsberg Memorial Prize, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust Travel Fellowship, and the Florence Leif Award. She has exhibited with On Stellar Rays, The NYU Institute of Fine Arts, Miller, and Asya Geisberg Gallery in NYC, Vox Populi in Philadelphia, CES Gallery in Los Angeles, Porsesh Institute (Anahita Gallery) in Tehran, and Motus Fort in Tokyo.
