julie evans

november 22 - december 21, 2025

Working between abstraction and representation, my work has always referenced nature, to call attention to its amazing intelligence and to honor its beautiful complexities. I find myself drawing, painting, sculpting, dreaming, and thinking about its forms, and have been collecting seed pods and other dried botanical matter from all over the world for as long as I can remember. I am continuously astonished by the micro and macro intelligence systems involved and applied to all of nature’s structures, cycles, and patterns. And while geared towards efficiency and survival, these systems also have extraordinary power, logic, elegance, and beauty far beyond what we can see or have yet to understand.

Through this lens I explore how we construct meaning from visual cues, and where our thoughts go when confronted with uncertainty or ambiguity. I am interested in the fine line between knowing and not knowing, and the influence this has on our perception. To that end I conjure sculpted organic forms that are intentionally ambiguous and open ended. Their shapes are vaguely familiar, and even quite specific, yet they remain unidentifiable. So, clarity meets ambiguity and fact meets fiction, as I mediate discovery, intention, invention, and material chance. This slippage from a recognizable form to a different, unrecognizable conclusion causes us to slow down, pay closer attention and possibly shift our understanding. It draws out a heightened sense of awareness and engagement, while the brain tries to catch up to what the eye is seeing. It is this slow engagement I am after, and its potential for a meaningful exchange between object and viewer - between nature and us.