Julie Wolfe, Color Index, 2015, acrylic and graphite on canvas, 60" x 60"
Washington DC — HEMPHILL is pleased to announce the exhibition, JULIE WOLFE: Language of the Birds,
opening on Saturday, May 14, with a public reception from 6:00 - 8:00pm. The exhibition will remain on view
through June 30, 2016.
When introduced to her work in 2009 by a well-known curator, we could not have predicted the scope of Wolfe's
ambition and her subsequent achievements. At the time, we recognized her talent and identified a ready group of
collectors. She described her need to be more than clever, more than popular. Many artists talk a big game; few
have the drive or vision to achieve what lies beyond popularity.
Over the past eight years Wolfe has pushed the boundaries of her creativity, adding politically relevant content
and intensifying the impact of her work. She has taken on ever more ambitious installation projects, produced
environmental and collaborative work outside of the studio, and has been awarded significant commissions. These
measures of ambition and success do not define her career. She aims further. Her objectives move outward,
addressing the fundamental cycles of life, the drama of containment and release, and engaging in the complexity
of Gaian environmental issues. A single gallery exhibition can only hint at an artist's power. Yet each one does
serve to predict where she is headed. We could not be more excited to see where Julie Wolfe will take us.
Language of the Birds is Julie Wolfe's third exhibition at HEMPHILL. She addresses a range of subjects in a variety of
mediums: a comic take on psychological interpretation of the Lüscher Color Test, the patterns of human behavior,
and the mysteries of communications between birds. This show brings the aesthetic experimentations of the
artist's recent installation, GREEN ROOM, into a more intimate context.
GREEN ROOM, exhibited at 1700 L Street in the Fall of 2015, is an installation of hundreds of water samples
collected from various sources, arrayed on industrial racks in a vacant downtown storefront. Wolfe's most ambitious
environmental installation to date, the project garnered media attention from all corners, including reviews in The
Washington Post, Home & Design Magazine, and a video-documentary broadcast on BBC America.
HEMPHILL was founded in Washington DC in 1993. The exhibition schedule features modern & contemporary art
in all media by artists ranging from emerging to mid-career to modern masters.
