‘Strange Combinations’

an exhibition of the work of Julie Graves

28th March to 12th April
Jack House Gallery 6-8pm

& at Art Space Portsmouth
25th to 30th March 2025

“It’s a strange combination of almost David Hockney meets Salvador Dali. It’s got a surreal quality to it which
is very very clever” Kathleen Soriano

Let’s start, as the show will start, with this accomplished, familiar, slightly eerie local beach scene of Eastney Beach and the quotation it inspired. When Julie and I discussed the artworks she might want to include in what would be a retrospective exhibition, she was very clear that she wanted this painting in the window of the gallery, and her reason was both amusing and very telling: She wanted to confound peoples’ expectations of what would follow this painting with the very different work in the rest of the exhibition.  Julie had applied to take part in the Sky Landscape Artist of the Year in 2017, and you would have been forgiven for thinking that she was the least likely artist to apply, let alone find herself selected to take part! Julie’s background was in textiles, taking great pleasure in the materials and tools of textile making, and her work was predominantly grounded in fine weaving and tapestry. On getting to know Julie, as I did over recent years, it became apparent that much about Julie Graves confounded expectation. This foray into mainstream televised arts and the very testing and competitive environment she placed herself in, all the while working in a medium in which she was untrained - not to mention feeling something of an imposter - is just one example.

Julie was immensely proud of making the top three in her heat of the Sky Arts programme, yet equally relieved she didn’t go further as, she confessed, her nerves just couldn’t take it. She was also proud and tickled by Kathleen Soriano’s description of her submission painting, saying “It’s a strange combination of almost David Hockney meets Salvador Dali. It’s got a surreal quality to it which is very very clever”. Julie found it absurd that it could be applied to anything she had made, but also a vindication. Julie was a weaver, a stitcher, a painter, a robot maker, a draughtswoman and a sculptor, whose work is full of ideas beautifully and elegantly executed.

This show of work by Julie Graves has been curated in collaboration with her friends and colleagues Rachel Johnson, Ally Ashworth and Philip Sanderson from ‘Soft Geometry’. The aim is to demonstrate the breadth, beauty and incredible versatility of Julie’s work, and also to try to convey the sense of wonder we felt when unpacking her tissue-wrapped objects, artworks and collections, carefully cocooned in customised boxes and packages typical of Julie’s attention to detail.

To coincide with the show Julie’s close friend Natalie Dowse has produced a book which achieves what seemed at first impossible - a real sense of the playful, serious and accomplished body of work crammed into too short a life. The book is in production and will be available at the exhibition. However, we expect demand to be high, therefore we are taking advance orders via the Jack House Gallery website. The proceeds for the sale of the book will go to Rowans Hospice where Julie spent her final days as will the profit from sales of the artworks that will be for sale here at Jack House Gallery and at Art Space Portsmouth. To order a copy of the book JULIE GRAVES Artist click here

Rebecca Crow Director Jack House Gallery February 2025