Julie Wills

My work is inspired by the tools of desire: wishes, hopes, pleas for divine or cosmic intercession, and superstitious rites. These are the things we turn to when something is desperately wanted but cannot be achieved through hard work or other rational means. I frequently draw imagery from celestial sources. The moon, stars and cosmos recur throughout in varying forms: the distant reaches of an infinite cosmos strain to reach their other halves. Individual stars fall from the sky, disrupting the known order of the universe. Through this imagery I explore constancy and mutability, current conditions, and hope for an unrealized but longed-for future.

Julie Wills, Words That Block Out the Light, 2021. Pair of framed graphite drawings on paper, 14"x14" each. Thumbnail - Julie Wills, 100 Year Flood, 2020. Installation, VisArts, Rockville, MD

Julie Wills (b. 1974) is an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture and installation, drawing, text, and intersections between these media. She is recipient of an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council, and has been awarded artist residencies at Cill Rialaig (Ireland), Arteles (Finland), Jentel, PLAYA, The Hambidge Center, and Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, among others. Recent solo exhibitions have been presented at Plain Sight, Washington, DC (in partnership with the Embassy of Sweden and the European Union National Institutes for Culture); Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA; VisArts, Rockville, MD; C for Courtside, Knoxville, TN; and Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA. In addition to her individual studio practice, Wills is one of four artist members of The Bridge Club, an interdisciplinary performance art collaborative active since 2004. Wills is an Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Washington College in Chestertown, MD. Raised in Colorado, she is now Baltimore-based and serves on the Artist Advisory of Board of the ICA Baltimore.