JULIE OAKES

Painting, Works on Paper, Glasswork, Print Making, Sculpture, Found Objects, Weaving, Ceramics, Installation Art, Performance Art

City: Vernon, British Columbia

Website: http://www.julieoakes.com

Artist Statement: I have addressed environment, identity politics and gender equity. This often meant an innovation in materials to express concepts.
Recently, in order to focus on female sexuality, child bearing, domesticity, elder care and hospitality, my current work stakes a claim for femininity – not feminism, but an inclusive femininity.

Biography: Environmental protectionism, women’s rights, spiritualism, artistic activism and the benefits of cultural diversity have been threads throughout Oakes’ work. In 1994, Oakes opened Headbones Gallery, Vernon. She moved to New York in 1998 to complete a Masters degree in Visual Arts (NYU) and a Masters in Social and Political Science (New School for Social Research). In 2005 Oakes and her partner Richard Fogarty moved to Toronto. In 2010 they moved to Vernon, British Columbia where they designed and built Headbones Gallery and her studio. Oakes has written for Canon Magazine, New York, D’Arte International and Vies Des Arts magazine (2004 – 2018). Her trilogy of novellas, Human Sacrifice accompanied her solo exhibitions in Canada and England. Her first novel Hooks was published by Dundurn Press, 2010. Her solo exhibitions at the Canadian Clay and Glass Museum, Swounds and Awestruck Calendar of Ecology were multimedia installations which paved the way for her current body of work, SHESHE which premiered at the Penticton Art Gallery, Penticton, BC in November 2019.