Julia Blume is a New York based sculptor, painter, and writer. She received her MFA from SFAI in 2018, after earning her BA and MA in linguistics from Columbia University and UC San Diego. In 2023, she opened her solo show, The Walled Garden, at The Front (NYC), and her two person show, as long as you want at My Pet Ram (NYC). Recent group shows include Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, Strohl Art Center at the Chautauqua Institution, Mizuma & Kips, Field Projects, Paradice Palase, and Established Gallery. She has participated in residencies with The Canopy Residency, Signal Fire, ChaNorth, and ArtsIceland, and she was a fellow in Tania Bruguera’s Escuela de Arte Útil. She was a finalist for the Hopper Prize, and her work has been featured in Two Coats of Paint, Create! Magazine, Youngspace, Bat City Review, Friend of the Artist, and more.

About the work: My sculptures explore symbiosis, communication,  and the self-determination of the more-than-human world. Through my works, I imagine a world in which the traditional dichotomies of life/matter, artificial/natural, and human/nature are broken down to bring about new modes of existence. These ideas are visualized through hybrid forms, where plants that have been cultivated by humans for economic and agricultural reasons come together to create sinuous, lumpy, symbiotic collectives. Net-like forms reference roots weaving through cracks in walls and tearing them down, and tuber-like forms suggest loci of plant interaction and communication. These organic forms are intentionally created from non-biological, highly processed materials, such as fluorescent pigments, plastics, and commercial faux flowers, which lead the viewer to question received notions of “natural” and “artificial”.