Programs

Visual Art

The Suburbs of Eden

September 20, 2024 – February 2, 2025

Julie Speed, Homecoming, 2022, gouache & collage, 40 x 60 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Julie Speed, The Stars Killed Him. The Worms Ate Him., 2023, gouache & collage 24 x 27.50 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Julie Speed, Death and the Maiden, 2014, gouache, collage & ink 40 x 60 in. Courtesy the artist.

Exhibition

Julie Speed

Opening Celebrations: Friday, September 20, 2024, 5–8pm

Curator & Artist-led Walkthrough: 5:30pm

Ballroom Marfa is pleased to announce the upcoming Fall 2024 exhibition from Julie Speed, The Suburbs of Eden opening Friday, September 20, 2024. The exhibition brings together a selection of over 70 works on view including paintings, collages, and gouaches from Julie Speed created over multiple decades.

Speed, whose work is often compared to that of the Surrealists, Dada, and Renaissance painters, has an artistic style that struggles to fit neatly into any art historical period. The work is both outside of reality and tied to it. An astute draftsperson, Speed depicts strong, often non-gendered figures inhabiting dream-like spaces, offering comfort in the shared nature of our inner thoughts. Speed confronts universally shared experiences and stories, clothing her figures in humanity itself. Torsos and limbs are transformed into scenes of war, politics, architecture, and nature. We are consistently reminded of our shared history as human beings. Speed wants us to be aware of our time on this planet, understand our relationship to it and to each other, and know that the universe is watching.

The exhibition is accompanied by a 168-page catalog and limited-edition prints will also be available.

The Suburbs of Eden coincides with Ballroom Marfa’s twentieth anniversary year, 2023-2024. The Suburbs of Eden brings together work from multiple decades of Speed’s practice. Speed moved to Austin in 1978, settling in Marfa in 2006 devoting herself full-time to her painting practice.

Julie Speed: The Suburbs of Eden is organized by Fairfax Dorn and Holly Harrison with Alexann Susholtz.

Artist Profile

Julie Speed

Julie Speed (b. 1951, Chicago, Illinois) After dropping out of Rhode Island School of Design at age 19, Speed supported her art by working as a house painter, horse trainer, waitress, farm worker, ad writer, etc. while living in Kentucky, Connecticut, California, Michigan, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Nova Scotia, Canada. In 1978 she moved to Austin, Texas where she settled down and was able to begin to sell enough art to quit her other jobs and paint full time. In 2006 she moved to Marfa Texas, where, in her words, “I keep hours just like a real job, only longer, and in my spare time I drink tequila and garden.”

Recent solo exhibitions include Dishman Museum of Art (2021); The Taubman Museum of Art (2019–2020); El Paso Museum of Art (2018–2019); Evoke Contemporary (2016–2017); Ruiz–Healy Art (2016); Flatbed Press (2016)

Acknowledgements

This exhibition is generously supported by Josh Jones-Dilworth, Penrose & JDI; Kathleen and Chris Loughlin; City of Marfa; The Brown Foundation Inc.; Lebermann Family Foundation; Ballroom Marfa Board of Trustees; and International Surf Club Founders.