Julie Held (b. 1958) studied at Camberwell School of Art 1977-81. She was awarded The Picker Fellow in Painting in 1981, and subsequently attended The Royal Academy School’s post-graduate diploma programme. She has exhibited widely in the UK and Europe, with solo shows including Eleven Spitalfields; Mercer Chance Gallery, Hoxton; The Piccadilly Gallery, Cork Street; and The Boundary Gallery, London. Group shows have included The London Group, The National Portrait BP Portrait Award in 2013, and the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition – in which her work has been featured six times (2009, 2011, 2014, 2016, 2019, 2020).
Julie’s work is based on observation and memory; her compositions are notable for their vivid use of colour, and a style that blends the figurative and the abstract. ‘My work is mediated through time,’ she notes. ‘Subject and content either coincide or diverge, and I use multiple medias to give expression to these concepts in my work.’
Held teaches at The Royal Drawing Schools. She is a member of The London Group and she was made a member of The Aborealists in 2018. Her work is in public collections nationwide and abroad.