ABOUT
Julia Christey is a contemporary artist from Kirikiriroa/Hamilton, New Zealand and has recently completed a Master of Art (Visual art/Painting) with distinction. Her work is held in the collection of Waikato Institute of Technology, Private collector groups, as well as in private collections across New Zealand and Europe.
Recurrent subjects in her work challenge the viewer to consider the interface of human existence and the environment around them.
“My Masters project explores the tenuous relationship between humans and the environment. I am interested in the reverence and affection we feel for our environment, which contrasts sharply with the exploitation, pollution and unsustainable systems of production and industry. Beauty and the idyllic exist in close proximity to the dysfunctional and exploited.
Across the globe human agency is responsible for the transformation of pristine coastline and the decimation of landforms and forests. Nonhuman life forms are displaced and natural habitats are lost in the relentless pursuit of consumer goods and mounting waste. This strange new landscape is confronting with its utilitarian functionality and decimated beauty.
I am distressed about the prevalent bunker mentality, which abstracts and distances humans from an environment, in which we are deeply enmeshed.
As the atmosphere and oceans are commonly viewed as infinite carbon sinks for exhausted fossil fuels and other pollutants, they hold much interest for me. Being neither object nor subject, in their vast and dilute state, they seem easy targets for such human devastation. Yet they are vital in stabilising the Earth system.
My paintings have many layers, which reference human interference, the complexities of a shared material ecology and the compounding of time. Earlier layers are partially obscured, as a metaphor for the limitations of human perception and understanding of the complex ecological systems. This physical process, like the accretion and erosion within geological time, is both controlled and accidental.
Marks are frequently made by removing paint, exposing layers from underneath and leaving the empty space. The notion of such “erasure” seems appropriate when considering the grief and loss of a healthy ecology.
Making art at the time of environmental crisis is very much grappling with what our relationship to nature is and how nature and culture are intertwined. In this context I am forced to question my place in it and my orientation to it.”
ART AWARDS
2023 Finalist, Molly Morpeth Canaday Award/ Painting&Drawing
2021 Finalist, National Contemporary Art Award, Waikato Museum
2021 Finalist, Parkin Drawing Prize, Wellington
2021 Finalist, Estuary and Ecology Prize, Uxbridge, Auckland
2019 Finalist, New Zealand Painting and Printing Awards
2019 Finalist, Estuary and Ecology Prize, Uxbridge, Auckland
2018 Finalist, New Zealand Painting and Printing Awards
2016 Gordon Harris Award for Excellence in Contemporary Art (Third Year)
EDUCATION
Master of Art (Visual Art/Painting) with Distinction, 2022
BMA (Visual Art), Honours (First class) 2019, Waikato Institute of Technology
BMA (Visual Art) 2017; Waikato Institute of Technology
Dip. MT (post grad) 1994
Dip. Phyty 1988, Auckland University of Technology
EXHIBITIONS
2022 “What if Matter Mattered?” Solo show, Ramp Gallery, Hamilton
2022 Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari Art Exhibition & Auction, Don Rowlands Centre, Lake Karapiro
2021 National Contemporary Art Award Exhibition, Waikato Museum
2021 Parkin Drawing Prize Exhibition, NZ Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington
2021 Estuary and Ecology Prize Exhibition, Malcolm Smith Gallery, Auckland
2019 “These Times”, Postgraduate group show, Ramp Gallery, Hamilton
2019 New Zealand Painting and Printing Awards Exhibition
2019 Estuary and Ecology Prize Exhibition, Malcolm Smith Gallery, Auckland
2018 Postgraduate End of year group show, Wintec, Hamilton
2018 New Zealand Painting and Printing Awards Exhibition
2018 Solo Exhibition, "The Framing Workshop", Hamilton
2016 “Twister”, group exhibition, X-Block gallery, Wintec, Hamilton
2016 “Superette”, group exhibition, X-Block gallery, Wintec, Hamilton
2016 “Machine”, Solo installation , Spark Week Foyer, Wintec, Hamilton
2016 “End of year student exhibition “X-Block gallery, Wintec, Hamilton
2015 “End of year student exhibition “X-Block gallery, Wintec, Hamilton
2014 “End of year student exhibition “X-Block gallery, Wintec, Hamilton
PRESENTATIONS
Sustainable Futures Symposium, Wintec, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2020: Why Matters of Matter, matter in contemporary art
WRITING
2022 MA Dissertation: Matters of Matter in Contemporary Art
SOCIAL MEDIA
Instagram: @juliachristeyartist