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Artist Statement
"I paint in series that are often open ended, exploring repetition and disssimilarity within each group of canvases. The composition of my paintings is determined by a combination of precision and chance. I work slowly
with multiple layers, allowing gravity to direct the flow of paint. Layer upon layer of paint is built up, each layer intersecting with the previous. The paintings are organic: they crack, drip and split. Their dynamics
reveal opposition and interplay between the vertical and the horizontal."
Julie Umerle
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Cosmos or Chaos
"I would also draw attention to the way in which her works seem to evoke a feeling of suspension, as if what we see is a held or frozen moment within an on-going process. This sense of simplicity is achieved through an enormous process of condensation, resulting in a level of clarity and unity
that permeates the work."
Simon Morley, British artist and art historian
From his essay 'Impermanence Captured' for the exhibition catalogue 'Cosmos or Chaos', Studio1.1, London, 2010
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About the work
"These paintings are literally what they are, and do not transcend their materiality,
nor transcend any aspect of them, but are seemingly factual and somehow in that
factualness constitute some sort of analogy, which is unordered, non-symbolic, just
happens, matter of fact. Literally if these paintings were to succeed we should be
able to say nothing about them. Here we have very much a series of decision-making,
and that's the matter of factness of them. We have decision after decision made
apparent, in which we know that there's constant intervention on the part of the artist."
Saul Ostrow, art critic and Chair of Visual Arts at Cleveland Institute of Art, USA
From a review of Julie Umerle's work at Parsons School of Design, New York, 1998
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Catalogue Essay
"To call a painting 'Paragon' is a daring move but in many ways, in her works of that title, Julie Umerle offers up a perfect paradigm
for painting. The 'Paragon' paintings give us two spaces and, as in most of the recent work, one acts as a foil to the other. One side
of the canvas proposes an infinite space, a space to step into, to escape to, to retreat to. The other side situates the viewer firmly
in front of the work. The surface requires that you notice it - the paint thick with quartzsand keeps one at bay - you are in the present,
the here and now. The 'Paragon' paintings make us aware of our sublunary state - we are here but we want to be there. Something is in the way.
But perhaps we are glad of it."
Rebecca Fortnum, artist, author, and curator. Senior lecturer at Camberwell College of Arts, London
From her essay 'Heaven Can Wait' for the exhibition catalogue 'Julie Umerle : Recent Paintings', Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry, UK. 1995
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