Programs

Events

Opening Celebrations of Julie Speed: The Suburbs of Eden

20 September 2024

Julie Speed, Fall, 2024. Gouache & collage. 40 x 60 in. Courtesy of the artist.

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.

Event

Julie Speed: The Suburbs of Eden

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

Curator & Artist-led Walkthrough: 5:30pm

Please join Ballroom Marfa for the opening of Julie Speed, The Suburbs of Eden on Friday, September 20, 2024 from 5–8pm. The exhibition brings together a selection of over 70 works on view including paintings, collages, and gouaches from Julie Speed created over multiple decades.

We hope you can join us in Marfa for a memorable weekend! Ballroom exhibitions & programs are free and open to all.

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.