Skip to main content
Painting (MA)

Julia Bennett

b. 1995 California, USA

Julia Bennett is an American artist living and working in London. Bennett has completed a Bachelor’s of Fine Art in Photography/New Media in 2017. Her work has been exhibited internationally. Her recent exhibitions include; Vanguards, a group show currently on view with Unit London (London), a group exhibition with Wilder Gallery (London), Bucolia, Blue Shop Cottage (London), and Convergence and Collapse, a duo show at The Grove Collective (London). 

Show Location: Battersea campus: Painting Building, Ground floor

Julia Bennett sitting on a stool in front of her paintings in the studio

Ghosts among the living; held together by invisible strings, connected to their original spaces, they hold space still. What was leaves remnants–from the deep layers of time cradled by soil to the grey matter of our amygdala, they hold imprints of trauma. Without understanding deeper histories, we cannot begin to answer the questions of who we are, what was, or how we will carry on.

My practice serves as a reminder of our impossible present; a time of rupture and of ghosts. Within this, I explore desecration, collective mourning, and ultimately, the paradox of ongoingness and 'futurelessness'. Through this navigation, painting has become a way to see, to grieve, and to contemplate healing. 

In recent pursuits in mycofabrication, ongoingness has become a tangible matter. The politics of mycelium offers a way to understand the landscape that has been neglected, a way to revive the relationships of a bastardised ecosystem. This work has become a reflection of our entangling with the ever-colonised and over-consumed Earth: a mirror of the horrors within and the threshold to a world after. 

Large, 4 meter brown, abstract painting hung above a short decaying wall of bricks and mycelial composites
Mycelial composites in their molds during growth process
close up of warm brown painting; spots of clay falling off
close up of warm brown painting; dark streaks of soil web through the canvas
close up of brick/mycelial composite altar

Medium:

Coffee, clay, soil, pigment, oil on canvas and mycelial hemp composites stacked with found bricks

Size:

274 x 400 cm
brown stained tapestry; diptych
stained tapestry; diptych
close up of tapestry, traces of yellow, red, green and dark river clay
4 tapestries hanging over grass field in the Netherlands

Medium:

River clay, coffee dye, Alnus glutinosa catkin dye, red dogwood bark dye on canvas

Size:

96 x 274 cm
stretched pink/brown abstract painting
degree show installation next to pink/brown stretched painting
close up of brown and pink painting; thin lines of oil paint and sand
close up of brown and pink painting; thin lines of oil paint and sand

Medium:

Sand, beetroot, oil on canvas

Size:

180 x 250 cm
8 meter long dustsheet painting
terracotta clay and oil paint saturated on dust sheet
close up of clay and oil paint clawed onto dust sheet

Medium:

Oil, pigment, clay on dust sheet

Size:

185 x 800 cm
large 3.7 meter painting; orange and faint gray/blue weave together in a violent fire

Medium:

Acrylic, oil, and sand on dust sheet

Size:

370 x 370 cm
canvas painting hung on standing A-frame in the Mojave Desert

Medium:

Acrylic, Oil Paint, Sand, Canvas

Size:

241 x 127 cm