Julie Atkinson

Artist Biography

Visual artist living in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Julie received her undergraduate degree in Government from Harvard University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.  However, after several years of practicing law, she found herself taking a different approach to politics and justice, choosing to express her interest in these issues through art and painting.  

In 2020, Julie’s work began to focus on depictions of Black women in various levels of abstraction and in imagined landscapes.  The chaotic political climate drove her to read work by Black authors such as Audre Lorde, bell hooks, and Lucille Clifton.  These writings inspired her to take her figurative art practice in the direction of exploring Black female identity in a way that liberates Black women from societal assumptions, reclaiming the personal from the political realm.  Creating this work became an opportunity for her to exhale, heal, and imagine.  

Julie’s work has been exhibited in California at SLATE Contemporary in Oakland, San Francisco Women Artists Gallery in San Francisco, Artworks Downtown in San Rafael, and at other galleries and public spaces in the Bay Area.  Her work has also been in exhibitions around the country, including in Illinois, Wyoming, and New Jersey.  In 2022, her piece, Yellow, was selected for the Black Creativity Juried Art Exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois.  Julie is currently an active member of the ACCI Gallery in Berkeley, California.  

Julie lives with her husband and two children.  

Website and social media:

www.julieatkinsonart.com