Julie Harrison Interviewed on ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists

It was a delight to sit down with Isaac Mann, a painter and all-around engaging conversationalist, and talk about art for his podcast, ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists.

Listen to Episode #52, Part One as we discuss my interest in scientific imagery and "archiving and selecting reference materials, drawing techniques, early artistic influences and her career path." We also discussed "the importance of mentorship and the intersection of challenge, doubt and curiousity at play behind her practice."

Listen to Episode #53, Part Two as we talk about framing and exhibiting works on paper and "the overlap between drawing and collage, overcoming creative blocks, exploring new tools, building community and the importance of art history."

If you're able to, please support ARTMATTERS by subscribing to the podcast. This is an artist-run venture at its best, by an artist, for artists. (OK, full disclosure, I've known Isaac since he was 9 years old and have been a fan since then. I hope you become one too!)

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Harrison Awarded 2-month Artist Residency in Iceland

I’ve been in Iceland for one month as an artist-in-residence and will stay until April 1 at the invitation of NES in Skagaströnd. I’ve eaten smoked whale, sheep’s head, blubber, pickled ram’s testicle and fermented shark (tasted and spit out) among other delicacies — horse is a common food here but not for me.

I also learned that Iceland has over 130 words for wind (true fact). See below for one powerful kind of wind.

Some other random facts include: Iceland is a leading country for book publishing (Iceland publishes more books per capita than any other country in the world). Apparently, one in ten people in Iceland will publish a book in their lifetime!!

Iceland has no military.

Iceland doesn’t have any mosquitoes.

It’s illegal to own a pet snake, lizard or turtle in Iceland, and there aren’t any reptiles or amphibians in the country!

Iceland has the highest consumption of Coca-Cola per capita than any other country.

It has been said that 54.4% of Icelanders believe in the existence of huldufólk, invisible elves & trolls.

Iceland has a naming committee for prospective parents. There is an official register of approved and banned given names.

Iceland was the first country to have an openly queer Prime Minister.

Iceland had the first woman in the world elected head of state in a national election (1980–96).

There are 13 Santas in Iceland, and each have a name based on their specific behavior, such as Sausage Snatcher or Pot Licker. Children put a shoe in their window for 13 nights leading up to Christmas day and receive a present every evening.

The only native mammal in Iceland is the Arctic Fox, which came from Europe during the Ice Age.

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"Echoes of Voynich" Opens at Wönzimer Gallery in Los Angeles September 13th

I have six drawings in "Echoes of Voynich: Coded Systems in Contemporary Art," curated by Marcie Begleiter, which opens in Los Angeles’s Wönzimer Gallery on Friday, September 13 (and runs through October 18).

"The exhibit is part of the Getty Institute’s PST series, this year focusing on the theme of 'Art + Science Collide.' The accompanying 64-page catalog features an essay by the artist and scholar Johanna Drucker focusing on the Voynich Manuscript’s enduring fascination for artists, cryptographers, medievalists and anyone who enjoys a literary and artistic mystery. It will also include a curator’s essay and full color reproductions of the work in the exhibit.

"Echoes of Voynich is a group show inspired by the heretical Voynich Manuscript. This mysterious 15th-century European volume presents a Medieval ‘scientific’ world view using intricate drawings alongside elaborately coded text that has never been deciphered.

"Eight contemporary artists in the exhibit offer worlds of coded structures, where nature is conflated or indistinguishable from highly personal systems. Through painting, drawing, photography, artist books and installation work, Echoes of Voynich offers a multi-faceted view of contemporary art making connections and dissolving boundaries between Flora, Fauna and (Un)earthly Matter." [press release]

Artists include Marcie Begleiter, Timothy C. Ely, Julie Harrison, Christina McPhee, Blue McRight, Snezana Saraswati Petrovic, Fran Siegel and Linnea Spransey.

Two drawings included in the show. Top: Blood 6387 by Julie Harrison, 2023, graphite, blood, India ink, printer ink and paper on paper, 27.5 x 39 inches; Bottom: Blood 6384 by Julie Harrison, 2023, graphite, blood, India ink, printer ink and paper on paper, 27.5 x 39 inches.

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DVAA presents “Landforms and Bodyscapes, Drawings by Julie Harrison”

I'm thrilled to have a solo show with 18 large drawings and 13 small drawings at Delaware Valley Arts Alliance (DVAA), 37 Main Street Narrowsburg, NY 12764. (845) 252-7576. For information contact info@delawarevalleyartsalliance.org

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"Brains" by Kathleen Hulser published in Gallery&Studio Magazine

I'm thrilled that the article "Brains" by Kathleen Hulser has been published in the summer issue 2024 of Gallery&Studio magazine! Kathleen is a public historian and educator who has written about art for over 30 years. Thank you Kathleen Hulser and Gallery&Studio magazine! Click here or here to read the article.

"Harrison is a Jules Verne of the brain, traveling through photographs of interior lands made by SEMs (scanning electron microscopes). ... [Her] brain works hard on the science she receives, building an image of mind much more expansive than anything a microscope could render."

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Solo Exhibition opens at Southern Vermont Arts Center

I'm excited to announce my solo show, "Landforms and Bodyscapes," is opening at Southern Vermont Arts Center (SVAC) in Manchester VT this Saturday, March 30; it has a long run until July 15, so take a fun drive to Vermont for the afternoon. From Albany 75 mins; from Hudson 1 hr 50 mins; from Bennington 30 mins; from Springfield 2 hrs.

*Made possible with partial support from the Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dale Residence Award and the Celia & Wally Gilbert Art and Science ResidencecAward at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Above: Coastal Series (Norway), 2024,  graphite, India ink, printer ink and paper on paper, 25.5 x 156 inches.

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"Viral Integration" includes three drawings by Julie Harrison at University of California Irvine

University of California, Irvine, “Viral Integration,” February 1 – December 15, 2024 — Inaugural group exhibition curated by elin o'Hara slavick, artist-in-residence, for the new Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences Hall and Sue & Bill Gross Nursing and Health Sciences Hall. "The exhibit includes more than 100 works by 40 artists from across the United States and Canada – with a central theme of addressing health issues, from the individual human body and disease, treatment and survival to environmental factors and medical systems. Artists address childbirth, AIDS, mental health, cancer, medicine, healthcare workers, surgery, community responses to collective experiences, the practice of care, endometriosis, migraines, coal ash ponds, and much more." (UCI Public Health). Contact eoslavic@gmail.com for more information.

top: three drawings in "Viral Integration" from left to right: Bodies 6215 (2019), Bodies 8049 (2021), Bodies 4256 (2019), graphite and paper on paper, all 18 inches x 24 inches; bottom, flyer designed by Suzanne Slavick.

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Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dale awards Julie Harrison a 2-month Artist-in-Residence

I'm thrilled to have 2-months (January/February) at Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dale, located in a small Norwegian village on the western coast, Dale i Sunnfjord. It's an honor to have been invited with four other artists, each with our own studio and house high on a hill.

photos above: left, studio for AIRs at Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dale, from website; right, Dale i Sunnfjord Noway, view from studio, photo by JH.

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Six New Drawings Exhibited at Level Gallery in Ridgewood Queens NY

Level Gallery, “The Table,” May 21 – June 4, 2023

photos above: left, Brains 2742, 2022. Graphite, India ink, printer ink, and paper on paper, 9 x 12 inches; right, Brains 2723, 2022. Graphite, India ink, printer ink, and paper on paper, 9 x 12 inches.

I'm excited to show six drawings in the inaugural exhibition at Level Gallery, curated by director Sfera Lewis. Opening May 21 from 5-7pm at 1639 Centre St, Ridgewood, Queens, NY (Halsey stop on the L train), followed by a launch party with live music. Part of the @rockella.space Art Crawl 2023 weekend with open studios, music, dance, and art. Dance performance by Morgan Amirah + Savannah Gaillard.” Contact Level Gallery for more information.

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"The Elastic Mind" at Broward College Exhibits Lasting Impressions and Boundary (Radiated Face)

Broward College, “The Elastic Mind,” April 20, 2023 – Sept. 28, 2023 — curated by Kohl King, The South Gallery, Pembroke Pines, Florida.

Two of my early videos are exhibited, both made in collaboration with others.

Lasting Impressions, made with Robert Kleyn, was created in 1981. “Here the simple figure of the house comes alive, as symbol, mask and prop that enables the performers to be ciphers for the camera — to do anything except ‘act.’ ” (RK).

Boundary was made with Neil Zusman in 1980. The curator selected an excerpt, Radiated Face, "a mix of tapes produced during residencies where [we] collaborated in a free form improvisation of performance and media. Staccato images of violence and marching fascists are ‘thrown in’ to Julie’s face, sliced into sections with a special-effects generator, the Jones colorizer and Paik-Abe video synthesizer.” (NZ).

photos above: left, still from video, Boundary, 1980; right, still from video, Lasting Impressions, 1981.

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Celia & Wally Gilbert Art and Science Residencey Awarded

I'm thrilled to announce that I have been awarded an artist-in-residence at the preeminent biochemical research laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor Lab, in Long Island. I will spend 16 days there in Februday where I will create a new kind of self-portrait — one that utilizes and is inspired by images of my own body tissue, cells, and neuronal connections sampled from the resources at the lab.

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Six Drawings Featured in The Woven Tails Press

Six drawings were featured in The Woven Tails Press, Vol. X #7 which included the cover image and three page spreads.

photo above: page spread from The Woven Tails Press, November 2022 issue.

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"Organic Intelligence: Recent Drawings by Julie Harrison" by Johanna Drucker

Here's what Johanna Drucker says about my work in "Organic Intelligence: Recent Drawings by Julie Harrison," a newly published article from her Substack series JD: ABCs. Drucker is the author of dozens of books including her most recent, Inventing the Alphabet: The Origins of Letters From Antiquity to the Present.

“Julie Harrison’s recent Brain Series drawings are ... more alive than we might imagine any static image could be. You don’t so much look at these drawings as watch them.”

Solo Exhibition at Crescent Street Gallery in Claremont, California

I’m thrilled to announce a solo show at Crescent Tree Gallery, a new alternative space in Claremont, California. “Julie Harrison: Body Language Inside Out” was curated by John Trendler, artist and curator of visual resources at Scripps College. The show runs from September 3 – September 29.

Featured Artist at Epicenter-NYC: "Doing Good for the Hood"

Epicenter-NYC recently welcomed me as their featured artist, check it out! I appreciate Epicenter’s tagline — “doing good for the hood,” as well as “a newsletter about creating community in the city we love.” We need more of this attitude! Thank you Nitin Mukul.

Memoir #16: Dances of the Past (Part One), an interview by Alan W. Moore

Alan W. Moore interviewed me for his blog called Art Gangs. He recently authored a fantastic memoir called Art Worker: Doing Time in the NY Artworld (Journal of Aesthetics & Protest, 2022) about his experiences as an art worker during the 1970s and 1980s in downtown Manhattan, then the locus of the avant-garde art world. He recently posted an interview with me, “Memoir #16: Dances of the Past (Part One)” about my involvement with dance, Collaborative Projects and ... um, a few transgressions. Stay tuned for “(Part Two).”

Photograph by Julie Harrison, 1977, from a video made at Live Injection Point (LIP) by Julie Harrison and Cara Brownell, 1977.

"Life as Clouds" in the String Room Gallery at Wells Collage in Aurora NY

In March I am in a lovely group show entitled “Life as Clouds” (something I aspire to) in the String Room Gallery at Wells College. Thank you to co-directors Anna Ialeggio and Tara Kohn.

"Julie Harrison's 'Bodies' " in Interalia Magazine written by Kimberly Lyons.

I’m thrilled to have an article entitled "Julie Harrison's Bodies" in Interalia Magazine, written by critic, poet and publisher extraordinaire Kimberly Lyons. Interalia Magazine is dedicated to the interactions between the arts, sciences and consciousness. Issue #68, Meeting Points, is edited by Richard Bright, a prolific artist and writer in his own right.

"It seems that Harrison is attuned to some essential, fluidly dynamic core aspect of organic life that she perceives in all species and that she very much is contributing to our awareness of not just the forms but their qualities with her art." —Kimberly Lyons, Julie Harrison’s ‘Bodies’

Bodies 9587, 2021, India ink, photocopy ink and paper on paper, 34″ x 24″

Site-Responsive Outdoor Work in Pasadena, California

I’m thrilled to have been invited to create a site-specific outdoor work at The Residency Project, located in Pasadena, California. Bodies #8332: Pasadena, composed of images of microorganisms found in soil and plants indigenous to the Los Angeles-Southern California area, will be up from May 1 – June 30, 2021.

"Digging deeply into these invisible but vibrant lifeforms in an attempt to bring them to the surface, Bodies #8332: Pasadena presents an imaginary microbiome that blurs the boundary between science and fiction." —artist Sarah Umles, founder and director of The Residency Project.

Installation of Bodies #2332: Pasadena; photo courtesy The Residency Project, 2021.

Bodies #2332: Pasadena, graphite and paper on paper, 16.75" x 22.75", 2021.

I printed examples of Achromobacter, Bacillus, Bradyrhizobium, Cupriavidus, Enterococcus, Pseudomonas, Stenotrophomonas, and Streptomyces in varied sizes, combined them with paper scraps on paper, and drew into it. The drawing is 16.75” x 22.75” and has been digitally printed on aluminum to sustain the outdoor elements and installed outside on location at The Residency Project. Thank you Sarah!

Installation of Bodies #2332: Pasadena; photo courtesy The Residency Project, 2021.

Two Photographs Selected For Exhibition, Shame Radiant

I’m happy to have had two photographs included in artist / curator / gallerist / activist Todd Edward Herman's exhibition, Shame Radiant, at Redline Contemporary Art Center in Denver, Colorado. Redline is a non-profit that "fosters education and engagement between artists and communities to create positive social change." Shame Radiant was part of a larger concept, Three Acts: A Survey of Shame, Emotion, and Oblivion curated by photographer Mark Sink. It ran from March 6 – April 25.

Weather Series (Boy3), photograph digitally printed on archival paper, 2013.

Global Portraits Series (Gaza), photograph digitally printed on archival paper, 2012.

My conceptually-based photographs of repurposed media were sparked by the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, a war which in turn has propagated wars that are never-ending, for which I feel deep sadness (and shame). My photographs continued (for years) to be inspired by violence (actual and psychological) around the world. To read more about them, please go here, and to see more like this go here.

There were many other powerful works in this show that looked at “deeply intimate, broadly political, emotional, physical, social, sexual, interpersonal, intergenerational and institutional aspects of shame.” The installation of these photographs was remarkable (see below).

Screen shot of Instagram post by @eastwindow1, "Shame Radiant opening night was a success." 2021.

Todd Herman also produced a book which includes 84 selections (including mine) from Shame Radiant, published by his own gallery, located in Boulder, called east window, which “opened its doors (its window actually) in May 2020." I'm looking forward to seeing the book, presumably with the same title! Thank you Todd!

Screen shot of Instagram post by @Shame_Radiant, 2021.

And there's more — a show that keeps on giving! Some of the works from Shame Radiant (including mine) were selected and virtually exhibited at Femme Salée's salon, an online intersectional platform which focuses "on feminist, queer, BIPOC, & disability body & mind experiences in the arts." Femme Salée, based in New Orleans, Los Angeles and Denver, is run by a collective of artists, writers, & curators for the "purpose of publishing an online art journal that resists mainstream culture." Check them out at femmesalee.com.

Screen shot of Instagram post by @eastwindow1, 2021.