ABOUT THE WORK
Julia Stoops has explored process-driven mixed-media work for over 30 years. The works are symbolic and dreamlike, often abstract, with occasional figurative and landscape elements.
A contemplative openness and a playful understanding media come together during the creative process. Random and gestural elements share worlds with precise, computer-generated shapes. The images are sometimes clamorous, yet seem to exude out of a vast silence. Narratives are suggested: some joyful, some tense, some brooding, but nothing is concluded, as each piece seems to be in the process of moving into another configuration, the nature of which is mysterious. This is a characteristic of all Stoops' work, and as Sue Taylor said in a 2014 Art in America review, “[the work] represents, I think, an intrapsychic journey heralding untold discoveries.”
BIOGRAPHY
Julia Stoops was born in Samoa to New Zealand parents. Her childhood was spent in Japan, Australia and New Zealand, then she moved to the USA at the age of sixteen.
Her BFA with a focus in painting and installation is from the Corcoran College of Art in Washington, D.C. She returned to New Zealand where she gained a BA in philosophy and linguistics from the University of Auckland. In 1994 Julia moved to Portland, Oregon, and later earned an MFA in painting at Portland State University. She is a recipient of Oregon Arts Commission fellowships in both art and literature, and was a Ucross Foundation resident in 2016.
Julia's debut novel about a group of environmental/media activists, Parts per Million, was published by Forest Avenue Press in 2018.
CONNECT
Connect with Julia Stoops on Instagram.