Julia Whitney Barnes

I am Brooklyn-based, mixed media artist who has spent the last dozen years making indoor and outdoor works related to the natural world. Rooted simultaneously in science while evoking the fantastical, my long-term study of plants and animals expands my imagination in generating ideas for my work. The appeal to me of science is not in using hard facts to explain the world, but rather, utilizing science as a medium to pry open and reinterpret life. My ideas take form in installations, murals, sculptural reliefs, oil paintings and drawings.

I was born in Newbury, Vermont and grew up in several New England towns. I earned a MFA from Hunter College, City University of New York and a BFA from Parsons The New School for Design. I have created site-specific works at the Brooklyn Historical Society (Brooklyn, NY); Front Room Gallery (Brooklyn, NY); Mulry Fine Art (West Palm Beach, FL); FIGMENT Sculpture Garden (Governors Island, NY); Gowanus Canal mural (Brooklyn, NY); Empire Fulton Ferry State Park (Brooklyn, NY); Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center, Smithsonian Affiliate (Solomons, MD); and exhibited at many galleries on the east coast. I have been a member since 2006 of an all-female art collective, tART. My studio is in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn and I am on faculty at Adelphi University.

Recent installations include La Jardinière, a large wall-based abstracted vertical garden; where authentic-nature and simulated-nature elements coincide through multilayered planes of wall painting, representations of tree bark from industrialized wood, ceramic pressed bark, direct slip casts, floral representations in ceramic, and collected natural elements. The incorporation and fusion of these components is inspired by the urban experience of mediated nature settings, including elaborately planned parks and gardens, and through images of exotic places seen through the media.

This spring, I completed a New York City Department of Transportation commissioned mural entitled Roots/Routes, stretching 2000 feet along Harlem River Drive in northern Manhattan. The imagery references the role of roads and sidewalks in the city as the ‘root system’ or ‘veins’ for urban life, spreading across the entire city limits and depicts the way plants can grow out of sidewalk cracks, hinting that nature is always present and able to sneak back into a concrete jungle.

I created a large body of work inspired by bats, including the Orchid-Bat series, which sites the evolutionary ability of organisms to adapt to their environment. Rooted simultaneously in science while evoking the fantastical, these works depict the fusion of bats and orchids. The stimulus for the Orchid-Bat series originated from bats’ physical abilities to resemble the plants around them as a camouflage technique and from the way orchids can become more visually similar to the animals that eat their nectar in order to seduce them into pollinating.

My work is influenced by ecological practices and the complex relationship humans have to the environment. I aim to create work that has an effect upon current society and also withstands the test of time as the context evolves.

Education

2006 MFA, Fine Arts, Hunter College, CUNY, New York, NY
2001 BFA, Fine Arts, Parsons The New School for Design, New York, NY
1993–1997 Fine Arts, Norwich Art School, Norwich Free Academy, Norwich, CT

Resume

AWARDS/RESIDENCIES

2012 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (Seniors Partnering with Artists Citywide), Residency & Fellowship, New York, NY
2010 Edwin Austin Abbey Mural Fellowship at the National Academy of Fine Art, New York, NY
2008 International Open Art Residency, Island of Dreams, Greece
2007 PA Festival of the Arts Merit Award
2006 Greenwich House Pottery Residency, New York, NY
2006 Nancy Ashton Memorial MFA Award, Hunter College, CUNY
2003-2005 The Scholarship Foundation MFA Award

LECTURES & TEACHING EXPERIENCE

2012
Digital Art, Adjunct Faculty, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY
2011
Publication Design, Adjunct Faculty, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY
Digital Art, Adjunct Faculty, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY
Street Art, Visting Lecturer, Portland State University, Portland, OR
tART Collective, Visting Lecturer, Open Engagment Conference, Portland, OR
2010
Digital Art, Adjunct Faculty, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY
Painting & Ceramics, Visting Lecturer, Blair Academy, Blairstown, NJ
Clay & Casting, Artist in Residence/Lecturer, Hunter College, New York, NY
2009
Digital Art, Visting Lecturer, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY
Clay & Casting, Artist in Residence/Lecturer, Hunter College, New York, NY
2008
Clay & Casting, Visiting Artist/Lecturer, Hunter College, New York, NY
2007
Foundations: Sculpture, Visting Lecturer, Hunter College, New York, NY
Clay & Casting, Visiting Artist/Lecturer, Hunter College, New York, NY
MA Studio Art: Summer Program, Visting Artist, New York University, New York, NY
2006
3D Design, Adjunct Professor, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ
Ceramic Sculpture, Adjunct Professor, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ
Advanced Ceramics, Teaching Assistant, Jeff Mongrain, Hunter College, New York, NY
2005
Drawing, Teaching Assistant, Valerie Jaudon, Hunter College, CUNY, New York, NY
BFA Senior Seminar, Visting Lecturer, Parsons The New School of Design, New York, NY

CURRENT PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

College Art Association
Park Slope Food Cooperative
tART (a collective of emerging women artists dedicated to equal opportunities in the arts)
Bat Conservation International
City of Baltimore’s Percent-for-Public Art Program: Pre-Qualified Artist Pool

PUBLIC ART INSTALLATIONS

2012
S.P.A.R.C. Residency Windows (ceramic and glass installation), Sirovich Senior Center in affiliation with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York, NY forthcoming
Mens sana in corpore sano [a sound mind in a healthy body] (mural), PS/MS 282, Brooklyn, NY forthcoming
2011
Roots/Routes (mural), New York City Department of Transportation – Urban Art Program, New York, NY
Road Less Traveled (mural), St. Nicks Alliance – Arts@Renaissance,Brooklyn, NY
Floor-Sight (digital billboard), The Billboard Art Project, Savannah, GA, Nashville, TN & Duluth, MN
2010
Found on Governors Island (mixed-media installation), FIGMENT Season-Long Sculpture Garden, Governors Island, NY
2009
Prospect Flora (mixed-media installation), Brooklyn Utopias?,Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn, NY
Epiphyte (mixed-media installation), Windows Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY
Treehouse (Interior/Exterior) (printed billboard), ArtBridge, New York, NY
Gilded Phytophilic Bats (mixed-media installation), Annmarie Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Affiliate, Solomons, MD
2008
Relative Environment (mixed-media installation), Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, Brooklyn, NY
Gowanus Canal Species (mural), Toll Brothers & Art Assets, Brooklyn, NY

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2012
Postcards from Long Island, Barister’s Gallery, New Orleans, LA
In-Habitat, Front Room Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
tART: A New Form of Collective and Collaboration, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, Jamaica, NY forthcoming
Julia Whitney Barnes & Melissa Cowper-Smith, Sweet Lorraine Gallery, Brooklyn NY forthcoming
11 + 11: tART and The Fabelist Collaborate, London Transit Museum, London, UK forthcoming
2011
NurtureArt Benefit, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, NY
Drawing Connections, Siena Art Institute, Siena, Italy
tART Year 8, Arts@Renaissance, Brooklyn, NY
Summer Sampler, Front Room Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Alarums and Excursions: Fuse Works, Front Room Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Naming the Animals, Curious Matter, Jersey City, NJ
Single Fare 2: Please Swipe Again, Sloan Fine Art, New York, NY
Sweet + Sour, OZANEAUX Art Space, New York, NY
Honey, Liloveve, Brooklyn, NY
2010
Edwin Austin Abbey Fellowship Exhibition, National Academy of Fine Art Museum, New York, NY
Cool and Collected, Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont, NY
Green Too, Annmarie Garden Sculpture Park & Arts Center (Smithsonian Institute Affiliate), Solomons, MD
tart at AIR, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Red Hook Hoe-Down, Sweet Lorraine Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Julia Whitney Barnes: Orchid-Bats selected works Armstrong-Hipkins Center for Arts, Romano Gallery at Blair Academy, Blairstown, NJ
2009
SummerSpace, OZANEAUX Art Space, New York, NY
Brooklyn Utopias?, Old Stone House, Brooklyn, NY
Green Party, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, NY
NurtureArt Benefit, Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, NY
tART at AIR, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Within The Menagerie: Julia Whitney Barnes & Melissa Pokorny, Front Room Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
WIld Things, Annmarie Garden Sculpture Park & Arts Center (Smithsonian Institute Affiliate), Solomons, MD
I Heart Art, Work Gallery/The Wassaic Project, Brooklyn, NY
2008
tART Summer Salon, Rabbitholestudio Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Small Favors, Harrison & Jill Bonovitz Galleriies, The Clay Center, Philadelphia, PA
Generations VI, A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY
2007
Julie Durkin, Lauren Olitski & Julia Whitney Barnes Mulry Fine Art, W. Palm Beach, FL
Images 2007, PA Festival for the Arts, Robeson Gallery, University Park, PA
2006
Julia Whitney Barnes: Orchid-Bats 9494 Project Space, Brooklyn, NY
MFA Thesis Exhibition Hunter College/Times Square Gallery, New York, NY
2005
MA’s Select MFA’s Hunter College/Times Square Gallery, New York, NY
The Real Party, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT
2004
Night of 1,000 Drawings, Artists Space, New York, NY
Momenta Benefit, Momenta Brooklyn, NY
2003
Julia Whitney Barnes: Cycles, 65 Hope Street Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2002
Signs of Life, Free Biennial Festival, New York, NY
2001
Take heART, Media Production International, New York, NY
BFA Thesis Show, Parsons School of Design Gallery, New York, NY

PRESS & PUBLICATIONS

The L Magazine, February 1, 2012, “Artists Imagine Inhabitable Habitats”
Flavorpill, January 25, 2012,“Critics Pick: In-Habitat”
Gowanus Your Face Off, January 10, 1012 “Climate Reality Project’s Gowanus Expedition”
The Greenpoint Gazette, September 16, 2011, “The Renaissance Women of tART” [cover story]
Catalog for Open Engagement conference, published May 2011
W-MBC TV, Airdate: April 25, 2011, “Interview for Naming The Animals exhibition at Curious Matter”
Catalog for Naming The Animals exhibition, published April 2011
BCAT TV, September & October airdates 2010, “Neighborhood Beat: Red Hook – Julia Whitney Barnes”
Artnet, August 11, 2010, “Mural Fellowships Announced for 2010”
Larchmont-Mamaroneck Patch, July 29, 2010, “Hot New Brooklyn Artists at Opening of ‘Cool & Collected’”
The Baltimore Sun, July 15, 2010, “Sculpture garden celebrates relationship between art, nature”
The Warren Reporter, January 26, 2010, “Brooklyn artist Julia Whitney Barnes to exhibit at Blair Academy”
The New York Times: City Room, March 4, 2010, “Ode to the Gowanus Canal”
The Huffington Post, November 19, 2009, “Bats: The New Canary in the Coal Mine?”
Time Out New York, October 1, 2009 “Own This City: Museums”
The L Magazine, June 2009 “Some Art with your Indie Rock? “Art Event” “Arts at Northside”
wagmag, June 1, 2009, “Review: Within the Menagerie”
The Greenpoint Gazette, May 28, 2009, “Wildly Amusing”
500 Ceramic Sculptures, May 2009 book published by Lark Books
The New York Times, City Beat Blog, March 27, 2009, “Converting Chelsea Scaffolds Into Art”
AMNY, March 20, 2009, “Artistic Neighborhood Face-Lift”
Curbed, October 30, 2008 “Have Toll Brothers Turned to Art to Win Gowanus Hearts & Minds?”
Brownstoner, October 30, 2008 “Closing Bell: Wild Gowanus”
NBC New York October 30, 2008 “Toll Brothers Using Art to Win Gowanus Hearts & Minds?”
flash film, October 10, 2008 “Interview with Julia Whitney Barnes”
New York Art Crit, August 4, 2008 “Summer Sculpture 2008: Vegetable Mineral”
The New York Times (Travel Section) August 3, 2008 “In Brooklyn, Sharing a River but Not Much Else”
Kathimerini (Greece), K Magazine, August 3, 2008 “Art Eretria: Openart Residency”
The Brooklyn Paper, July 19, 2008 “Park Art”
Black Book Magazine, July 3, 2008 “Sweet tarts Go Down The Rabbit Hole”
The Palm Beach Post, November 30, 2007 “Stop. Look. Go! Art: Exhibitions of Note”
The Brooklyn Paper, October 20, 2007 “Art: Go Gowanus”
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 19, 2007 “Gowanus Sheds its Tough Skin for a Weekend Of Open Art Studios”
Hunter College MFA Thesis Catalog, May 2006 “MFA Spring 2006”
MA’s Select MFA’s, November 2005 “Wall Text/Catalog Essay: Julia Whitney Barnes”
RE:D Magazine, Winter/Spring 2004 “RE:CORD Fine Arts”
The New York Sun, April 19, 2003 “Calendar Pick with photo – Cycles: Julia Whitney Barnes”
The L Magazine, May–June 2003 “65 Hope Street Gallery – Cycles: Julia Whitney Barnes”
Free Williamsburg, April–May 2003 “Williamsburg Galleries: 65 Hope Street”