Julia Shepley

About Julia Shepley

Locus Installation

Shepley's work references the winds and tides of human attachment and energy, by turns, dispersing, settling and accumulating as they are layered and pieced together by time. Long engaged with the effects of light and shadow on architectural and natural environments, Shepley's work is informed by combining varying observational viewpoints, as well as the compressed, warped, or elongated shapes of shadows and reflections. She works on sculpture, drawings and prints simultaneously pulling the drawings into three dimensions and creating a graphic image with her wall sculpture. She layers and combines materials, methods and imagery to create the illusion of movement and reassembly.

A selection of new drawings and prints, draw on imagery from the artist's observations of architecture and stonework as reflected in pools of water and waterways. In these multi-layered works, Shepley often combines unexpected materials such as copper foil, wood veneer, and plastic vellum to extend her drawings beyond the picture plane into the gallery space.

Shepley works in series of related works which can be shown in group installations, in pairs or individually. Shepley is represented by the Boston Sculptors Gallery, is a member of the Boston Printmakers, and The Textile Study Group in NYC, and is represented in museum and library collections in the Boston area. She works out of her studio in the Brickbottom Artists Building in Somerville. Shepley studied at Hampshire College and Boston University and grew up in Boston, Marshfield, MA and Sierra Leone, West Africa.

She has exhibited nationally and internationally including MEWO Kunsthalle, Memmingen, Germany (Ovid's Girls); The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, Ohio; the Decordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln MA (The Sculptor's Eye, Prints Drawings & Photographs from the Collection); Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA (Material Drawing); and at the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (Contemporary Sculpture and Sculptors' Drawings).

She has been widely reviewed in publications such as The Boston Globe, Sculpture Magazine, ArtScope, and Art New England. Grants include: The New England Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Instagram: julia.shepley

Contact Info

1 Fitchburg St, C312
Somerville, MA 02143
Studio: 617-628-7623
Email Julia Shepley

Resume

Julie Shepley resume (pdf)

Photo Credits

Clements/Howcroft, Damianos Photography, Kay Canavino, Bill Kipp, and Julia Shepley