“Order Up”, Oil on Canvas, 48”x48”

Julia Walters is an MFA candidate in Painting + Drawing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Julia Walters (2000) was born and raised in Redding, a rural town in Northern California. She attended the University of California Davis, where she achieved her BA in Studio Art and Design in 2022. During her undergrad years she was an active and passionate member of the arts community in Davis and worked at the Manetti Shrem Art Museum while also working as a Peer Advisor for the Art Department. Upon graduating from UC Davis, she was awarded the Manetti Shrem Artist Residency Scholarship where she studied at the Royal Drawing School in London to further her artistic ambitions and skills.

She has had the opportunity to do several group shows all over Northern California her latest being “An Accident on Purpose” which took place in San Francisco. Her work centers around the interest in observing figures in the mundane and finding moments that can be captured to spark interest and curiosity. Her community is a big part of her artist practice as she usually depicts people she knows and has built a relationship with.

Artist Statement

I have a generalized interest in the evolution of figurative compositions and a specific interest in the influence that social media has on contemporary culture. My artistic practice focuses on explorations of mundane moments that exemplify our humanity. We live in a unique period where our every action is immortalized by being posted online. This creates a sense of intimacy, an ability to look at the everyday experiences of the individuals around us. Despite this notion of intimacy that is associated with social media, it is critical to remember that these posts are frequently curated. This is fascinating to me in how it impacts the way figures are represented in our culture. Portraiture and figurative works provide the opportunity to both explore this, and also, to juxtapose it with moments of mundanity. My body of work provocatively challenges this curation by capturing the lack-luster mundane moments that we typically experience to highlight the bizarre and rebellious act of genuinity. I depict people in everyday settings that are modified by the color palettes to emphasize memory and to kindle nostalgia and relatability. I partner with individuals that I build relationships with in my community and capture them living their everyday lives.