EDUCATION
Master of Fine Arts, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT. Painting/Printmaking (2018)
Bachelor of Arts, Harvard College, Cambridge, MA. Visual & Environmental Studies with a Secondary Field in Italian (2011)
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2023
Album (solo show), Freight+Volume Gallery, New York, NY
2022
Screen Shot (solo show), Jennifer Terzian Gallery, Litchfield, CT
Footnotes and other embedded stories, curated by Laurel V. McLaughlin, Artspace, New Haven, CT
2021
Affective Histories, Hesse Flatow, New York, NY
Sections (solo show), Real Eyes Gallery, North Adams, MA
@SomeHighTide (solo show), Arts & Leisure Gallery, New York, NY
Out of Office, curated by Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, Collar Works, Troy, NY
Art on Paper, curated by Emily Stamey, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC
Painting Abstraction: 197X – Today, Zeit Contemporary Art (online), New York, NY
Praying on the Name, curated by Jacob Todd Broussard and Adam Thibodeaux, KINGFISH Gallery, Buffalo, NY
2020
We Live in Real Time, Printed Matter, New York, NY
Unrealized, organized by Assembly Room and Artfare (online), New York, NY
Joie de vivre, Zeit Contemporary Art (online), New York, NY
Open House, curated by Julia Rooney, Elegran Real Estate, New York, NY
Women in Paint, curated by Anita Trombetta and Claudia Santiso, 68 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY
2019
Patterns of Influence, curated by Andrea Kantrowitz, Sue Collier and Barbara Laube, The Painting Center, New York, NY
The House, curated by Jessica Gaddis, Matthewis Persen House, Kingston, NY
My Kingdom for Baked Alaska, curated by Anita Trombetta and Claudia Santiso, Meeting House, Troy, NY
paper paper (solo show), curated by Storm Ascher, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Reading Painting, curated by Maya Strauss and Seth Becker, Treasure Town, Brooklyn, NY
Daddy’s Books, curated by Lauren Faigeles and Caitlin MacBride, Life Lessons, Brooklyn, NY and Drury Gallery, Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT
2018
Engaged Editions: Creative Advocacy in Print, curated by Aimee Lusty, Booklyn, Brooklyn, NY
Tails, Next to Nothing Gallery, New York, NY
Way Out Now, Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Folded: New Acquisitions to the Artspace Flatfile, curated by Katy Rosenthal, Artspace, New Haven, CT
super/NATURAL, Artspace, New Haven, CT
Wild Seed, Green Gallery, New Haven, CT
2017
Doubles (solo show), Chashama: One Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, NY
Assembly (solo show, online), Zeit Contemporary Art, New York, NY
Paris, Texas, Artspace, New Haven, CT
Nasty Women, The Institute Library, New Haven, CT and Knockdown Center, Queens, NY
2016
Reconstruir, The Cooper Union, New York, NY
Feast, Green Gallery, New Haven, CT
SHIM Invitational 3, ArtHelix, Brooklyn, NY
MFA-18, Green Gallery, New Haven, CT
The Gnome Show, curated by Sara Stern, Stern Garden, New York, NY
Yourself, curated by John Baber, Local Project, Long Island City,
NY Employee Art Show, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
2015
Small Works Invitational: Paintings, Blue Mountain Gallery, New York, NY
Single, curated by Maria Dimanshtein, Local Project, Long Island Ctiy, NY
Girls, curated by Ellen Colcord, Rogue Space Gallery, New York, NY
The Royal Portrait Gallery of Hadley, Flying Object, Hadley, MA
Engaging Artists, curated by Megan Suttles, Hot Wood Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY
After Image: Contemporary Artists & Photography, curated by Raymond E. Mingst and Arthur Bruno, Art House Productions Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
PUBLIC TALKS & WORKSHOPS
2023
Criticism+Value IX, Ernest A. Bryant III and Julia Rooney in Conversation, Freight+Volume Gallery, New York, NY
2022
Screen Shot, Keely Orgeman and Julia Rooney in Conversation, Jennifer Terzian Gallery, Litchfield, CT
SEARCH, conversation with Mira Dayal, Julia Rooney and Stephanie Sparling Williams, Artspace, New Haven, CT
Happy & Doran Artists-in-Residence Roundtable + Catalog Launch with Laurel V. McLaughlin, Bregamos Community Theatre, New Haven, CT
Green Screen workshop, Artspace, New Haven, CT
Sidewalk Studio, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
2021
Affective Histories, panel discussion moderated by Xiao Situ, Hesse Flatow, New York, NY
Julia Rooney in Conversation with Caroline Fowler, Real Eyes Gallery, Adams, MA
Indexing Without a Client—The Mueller Report, Peter Rooney and Julia Rooney, Presentation at The 2021 Conference of The American Society for Indexing
Julia Rooney and Sara Stern in Conversation @SomeHighTide, in conjunction with solo show at Arts & Leisure Gallery, New York, NY
2019
Yale Prison Education Initiative Partnership Panel, moderated by Zelda Roland, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
Art and Social Activism, public papermaking workshop, curated by Nicholas Cohn, New York, NY
2018
Artist talk: Bianca Boragi and Julia Rooney Discuss Minimal Means: Concrete Inventions in the U.S., Brazil and Spain, curated by Joan Robledo-Palop, Zeit Contemporary Art, New York, NY
CALL/VoCA Talk: A Panel Discussion with Legacy Specialists Antonia A. Perez, Julia Rooney and Rose Nestler, moderated by Kendra Roth, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
Yale Prison Education Initiative Partnership Panel, moderated by Daniel Karpowitz and Zelda Roland, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
Information as Material: Engaging Instructional Matter in the Installations of Sol LeWitt and Sarah Sze, presented at The Physical History of Art Symposium, Department of the History of Art, Yale University, New Haven, CT
(Inter)sections: Gallery Conversation between Efe Igor and Julia Rooney, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
2017
Sidewalk Studio, silkscreen and pattern-making workshop with members of the New Haven community, organized through Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
Studio/gallery workshop, co-organized with Farah Al-Qasimi and the Yale Refugee Project, held at Yale University Art Gallery and Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
2016
The Recipe Box, participatory project at The More Art Social, UnionDocs, Brooklyn, NY
2015
REMAP Open Session: Participatory Workshop on Re-Mapping NYC with Homeless Communities, co-organized and led by Anna Adler, Corinne Cappelletti and Julia Rooney, The Jefferson Market Library, New York, NY
Material Ingredients: Finding a Congruity between Hummus and Paint, public workshop held at the Materials Lab at The Harvard Art Museum, Cambridge, MA
RESIDENCIES
The Joan Mitchell Center, New Orleans, LA (2022)
Soaring Gardens Artist Retreat, Laceyville, PA (2022)
Happy and Bob Doran Connecticut Artist in Residence, Yale University Art Gallery and Artspace, New Haven CT (2021-2022)
MASS MoCA’s Assets for Artists, North Adams, MA (2021)
DNA Residency, Provincetown, MA (2020, 2021, 2022)
Greenwoods 2058, Norfolk, CT (2021)
Brush Creek Arts Foundation, Saratoga, WY (2019)
Meeting House, Troy NY (2019)
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, SU-CASA (Teaching Residency), New York, NY (2019)
League Residency at Vyt, Ruth Katzman Scholarship, The Art Students League, Sparkill, NY (2016)
The Vermont Studio Center, merit-based scholarship, Johnson, VT (2014)
Engaging Artists (Teaching Residency), More Art and The Artist Volunteer Center, New York, NY (2014)
Studio Arts College International, Florence, Italy (2009)
GRANTS & AWARDS
Rema Hort Mann Foundation Artist Community Engagement Grant, Rema Hort Mann Foundation, New York, NY (2022-23)
Yale Prison Education Initiative Teaching Fellowship, Art & Social Justice Fund, Dwight Hall and Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT (2018)
Engaging Artists Grant: REMAP, A series of workshops with unhoused communities tracing personal histories and alternative ways of navigating New York City, project with Anna Adler, Corinne Cappelleti and Julia Rooney, funded with a grant from More Art and The Artist Volunteer Center (2015)
David McCord Prize for Outstanding Artistic Achievement, Harvard College, Cambridge, MA (2011)
Council Prize in Visual Art, The Office for the Arts, Harvard College, Cambridge, MA (2011)
Harvard College Research Program Grant, Harvard College, Cambridge, MA (2010)
David Rockefeller International Experience Grant, Harvard College, Cambridge, MA (2009)
Artist Development Fellowship, The Office for the Arts, Harvard College, Cambridge, MA (2009)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2023
Julia Rooney: Album at Freight+Volume, review by Anthony Haden-Guest, February 2023, Whitehot Magazine, https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/rooney-album-at-freight-volume/5693
"The brushstrokes are moving in all directions but are clearest in the grays," essay by Laurel V. McLaughlin, published in Album, Freight+Volume Gallery, Jan. 2023
"Pixels, QR Codes, and Square Paintings: In Conversation with Artist Julia Rooney," interview with Amanda Millet-Sorsa, Testudo, January 13, 2023. https://testudomkt.com/editorial/julia-rooney-interview-pixels-qrcodes
2022
"Inhabiting an out-of-scale World," interview with Julia Rooney and Filippo Lorenzin, published in Footnotes and other embedded stories, exhibition catalogue, Artspace, June 3, 2022
2021
Art on Paper 2021: The 46th Exhibition, exhibition catalogue by Emily Stamey, The Weatherspoon Art Museum, June, 2021
"The Tabernacle as Image," commentary by Xiao Situ, published by The Visual Commentary on Scripture, Oct., 2021. https://thevcs.org/tabernacle-evolutions-intimacy/tabernacle-image?first=7191
"The Quarantine Querent," essay by Jacob Broussard, Cornelia Mag, April 30, 2021. https://www.corneliamag.com/article-set/6-the-quarantine-querent
@SomeHighTide, artist catalogue published by Nick Lawrence, Arts & Leisure Gallery, Jan. 2021
"Levels of Perception," essay by Ernest A. Bryant III, published in @SomeHighTide, Arts & Leisure Gallery, Jan. 2021
"Write a Caption...," essay by Cora Frazier, published in @SomeHighTide, Arts & Leisure Gallery, Jan. 2021
"An Inquest into Identity." essay by Jeffrey Grunthaner, published in @SomeHighTide, Arts & Leisure Gallery, Jan. 2021
"Julia Rooney: @SomeHighTide," review by Cigdem Asatekin, The Brooklyn Rail, Feb. 2021. https://brooklynrail.org/2021/02/artseen/Julia-Rooney-SomeHighTide
"Art at Home: A Conversation with Julia Rooney," interview for Conversation X, Feb. 18, 2021 by Caroline Tisdale. https://conversationx.com/articles/julia-rooney
"Julia Rooney interviewed by Jennifer Earthman," published by Zeit Contemporary Art, Feb. 2021. https://www.zeitcontemporaryart.com/blog/36/
"Alteronce Gumby and Julia Rooney in conversation with Art Historian Samuel Shapiro," PERSPECTIVES podcast produced by Zeit Contemporary Art, New York, NY
"What We Call Art – Zeit’s Painting Abstraction: 197X – Today," review by Phillip Barcio, Widewalls, Mar. 2021, https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/sophie-taeuber-arp-traveling-retrospective-2021
2020
"Letter Writing as Proposition, The Importance of Touch and Collaborative Making with Julia Rooney and Maya Strauss," Tintamarre podcast, produced by Jacob Broussard, Summer 2020
paper paper, video trailer produced by John Alexander of Crook & Nanny, Feb. 2020
2019
"Your Work, Your Legacy: A CALL/VoCA Talk at Pratt," by Emmanuel Castillo, VoCA Blog, Feb. 2019, https://voca.network/blog/2019/02/01/your-work-your-legacy-a-call-voca-talk-at-pratt/
Yale School of Art MFA 2018 Catalogue, published by Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
2018
Eve Alone and Portalscreen, Yale Divinity School, Jul. 2018, https://divinity.yale.edu/news/eve-alone-and-portalscreen
2015
I did a series in a very hot August, published in AFTER IMAGE: Contemporary Artists & Photography, exhibition catalogue, curated by Arthur Bruso and Raymond E. Mingst. Jersey City: Art House Productions Gallery.
Julia Rooney // Qais Assali, published in here, without: art, otherness and Israel – Palestine, edited by Ethan Pierce, BBP Publications, 2015
TEACHING
Critic, Experimental and Foundation Studies, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI (Spring 2023)
Visiting Artist, Hartford Art School, Hartford, CT (2022-23)
Artist Mentor, Lesley University MFA in Visual Arts, Cambridge, MA (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023)
Teaching Artist, The High Line, New York, NY (2022-present)
Resident Visual Artist, First-Year Arts Program, Harvard College, Cambridge, MA (2013-present)
Teaching Artist, The Wallach Art Gallery, Lenfest Center for the Arts, New York, NY (2018-present)
Adjunct Professor, "Contemporary Art: A Visual History of Five Decades," Metropolitan State University and MN Department of Corrections Open University Program, Saint Paul, MN (2020)
Teaching Artist, “(Un)Forming Paper,” Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center, New York, NY (2019)
Course Instructor, “Painting Basics,” Manson Youth Institution, Cheshire, CT (2018)
Wurtele Gallery Teacher, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT (2018)
Teaching Assistant, “Visual Thinking” with Anahita Vossoughi, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT (Spring 2018)
Teaching Assistant, “Color Practice” with Anna Betbeze, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT (Fall 2017)
Teaching Assistant, “Painting Basics” with Kati Gegenheimer, Yale Summer School, New Haven, CT (Summer 2017)
Teaching Assistant, “Silkscreen” with Annette Lemieux, Harvard College, Department of Visual & Environmental Studies, Cambridge, MA (Spring 2012)
Artist Teacher Fellow, The Joan Mitchell Foundation, New York, NY (2014-16)
Teaching Artist, "The Recipe Box" and "REMAP," Park Slope Women’s Shelter, Brooklyn, NY (2014-2015)
Deeply concerned with the way social media is shaping patterns of thinking, making and communicating, Rooney consistently employs analogue modes of production both within and outside the studio. While rooted in painting, her practice often bridges other disciplines including papermaking and collaborative projects. Rooney's recent solo shows, Screen Shot (Jennifer Terzian Gallery, 2022) and @SomeHighTide (Arts+Leisure, 2021) featured a series of phone-sized and laptop-sized paintings installed both physically at the galleries, and digitally on her eponymous Instagram account, which she intermittently reactivates for site-specific projects as an ongoing form of inquiry. She is otherwise not active on social media. Rooney continued this research as a 2021-22 Happy and Bob Doran CT Artist-in-Residence through a partnership between Yale University Art Gallery and Artspace New Haven, culminating in the group exhibition Footnotes and other embedded stories. Rooney's ongoing series paper paper—made entirely of pulpified and re-formed newspapers—has been exhibited at The Weatherspoon Art Museum (Greensboro, NC, 2021), Real Eyes Gallery (Adams, MA, 2021), Kopeikin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA, 2019) and is currently on long-term loan at The Nature Conservancy in Connecticut. Using paper more tactilely, Rooney has been collaborating with her sister and poet, Anne Marie Rooney, since 2011 using the U.S. Postal Service as a medium for art production, distribution, exhibition, and mapping of their own movement between the cities of New York, New Orleans, New Haven and Baltimore.
In 2022, Rooney was an Artist-in-Residence at The Joan Mitchell Center (New Orleans, LA) and was awarded a Rema Hort Mann Foundation Artist Community Engagement grant for her project Greenspace, Greenscreen. Previous residencies and/or teaching fellowships include More Art’s Engaging Artists (New York, NY, 2014-15), The Yale Prison Education Initiative (2018), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s SU CASA (New York, NY, 2019), The Studios at MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA, 2021) and The DNA Artist Residency (Provincetown, MA, 2020-22). Rooney received her BA in Visual & Environmental Studies from Harvard College and her MFA in Painting from Yale School of Art.
Photo credit: Jessica Smolinski (2022)
To schedule a studio visit or discuss a project, please reach out:
EMAIL ADDRESS
JULIA ROONEY is a multidisciplinary artist, born and raised in New York City.
She currently works between New York, NY and New Haven, CT.