Julie Rrap facts for kids

Julie Rrap (born in 1950) is a famous Australian artist. She is also known as Julie Parr, Julie Brown, or Julie Brown-Rrap. Julie grew up on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. She was born as Julie Parr, but she changed her name to Rrap. This change showed her desire to challenge ideas. Since the mid-1970s, she has created art using photography, painting, sculpture, video, and performance. Julie's art often explores images of the human body, especially the female body.

About Julie Rrap

Early Life and Education

Julie Rrap was born in Lismore, Australia. Her family later moved to Nerang, a small town near the Gold Coast. She grew up there with her sister and brothers. One of her brothers, Mike Parr, is also an artist. They have often worked together.

In 1971, Julie finished her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. She continued her art studies in Sydney. In 1974, she studied painting and drawing at the National Art School. She also studied at the University of Sydney in 1975. In 1976, she focused on photo media at the City Art Institute in Sydney.

Early in her career, Julie Rrap ran a photography business. It mainly made copies for magazines, catalogs, and art books.

Working with Other Artists

In 1975, Rrap worked with a performance art group from the University of Sydney. This group included artists like Alex Danko and Mike Parr. Performance art is when artists use their bodies and actions to create a live artwork.

In 1976, Julie married Bill Brown, who was a painter.

Teaching and International Work

In the 1980s, Julie Rrap spent a lot of time at universities and art schools. She gave lectures on art, design, painting, and photography. Some of these places included the Australian Centre for Photography and Sydney College of the Arts.

From 1986 to 1994, Julie lived in France and Belgium. This time helped her art become known around the world. She showed her work in many different countries. In 1994, Julie returned to Australia.

In 2010, she earned her PhD from Monash University in Melbourne. Today, Julie Rrap lives and works in Sydney. She often travels between Europe and Australia for her art shows. She also continues to work at the University of Sydney. There, she researches and writes about other artists.

Julie Rrap's Art Career

Exploring Female Identity in Art

In 2018, Julie Rrap shared her thoughts in an interview. She said that when she was young, she was inspired by writer Simone de Beauvoir. However, it was hard to find many famous women artists in art history. This "lack" made her want to create art. She felt there was so much missing that could show how women felt and saw the world.

Julie Rrap's art career began in the 1970s. She used painting, performance, photography, sculpture, and video to explore her ideas.

A big influence on Rrap's art has always been the human body. She looks at how the body, especially female bodies, is shown in media and society. Julie uses her art to "poke fun at the usual ways women are shown." She wants to change these images so women become active characters. She uses her own body, or ideas of the body, in her artworks.

Early Exhibitions and Key Works

Julie Rrap had her first solo art show in 1982. It was called Disclosures: A Photographic Construct. This show had 60 black-and-white photos and 19 color photos. She used her own body in these photos. She posed in ways that challenged how women were traditionally shown in art. Some photos showed her in costumes or cut up and put back together. The color photos showed her full body. This work was very important for feminist art. Julie has continued to use her own body in her art, even in her 2009 video work 360 Degree Self-Portrait.

In some of her early works, Rrap put photos of herself onto famous paintings. She used images by artists like Manet and Degas. By doing this, she added her own image as an artist. This helped to change the traditional ideas of how women were shown.

In 1994, her work Transpositions covered a wall with 100 boards. These boards had photos of old portraits of women. In each image, the woman's eyes looked directly at the viewer. They were no longer just models for an artist. They became women with their own lives. This was Rrap's way of focusing on the women themselves, not just art history. After this work, she stopped using her own body image. Now, she might use materials like skin or leather. But she still explores how the female image is shown in different types of art.

Julie Rrap's art is shown by Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney and Arc One Gallery in Melbourne.

Awards and Recognition

Julie Rrap has received many awards and honors for her art. These include:

• 1986, Cité internationale des arts, Paris
• 1989, Fellowship Grant - Australia Council for the Arts
• 1995, Multi-Year Fellowship - Australia Council for the Arts
• 1997, Cité Des Arts, Paris
• 1999, Project Grant - Australia Council for the Arts
• 2001, Hermann's Art Award
• 2002, Fellowship Grant - Australia Council for the Arts
• 2007, Project Grant - Australia Council for the Arts
• 2008, Redlands Art Prize - Mosman Gallery
• 2009, Clemenger Contemporary Art Award - National Gallery of Victoria
• 2009, National Artists’ Self-portrait Prize - University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane

Solo Art Shows

Julie Rrap has had many solo exhibitions. Here are some of them:

• 2004 Soft Targets, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
• 2005 Soft Targets, ARC One gallery, Melbourne, Australia
• 2006 Fall Out, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
• 2007 Embodied, Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Newcastle
• 2007 Body Double, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
• 2009 Escape Artist: Castaway, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
• 2010 OuterSpace, Arc One Gallery, Melbourne
• 2010 360° Self-Portrait, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
• 2011 Julie Rrap: Off Balance, Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore, NSW
• 2012 Loaded, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
• 2014 Rrapture: Julie Rrap, Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle
• 2024 Past Continuous, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

Art Collections

You can see images of Julie Rrap's artworks on many art gallery websites. The following art collections own works by Julie Rrap:

• Art Gallery of New South Wales [1]
• Art Gallery of South Australia [2]
• Art Gallery of Western Australia
• National Gallery of Australia [3]
• National Gallery of Victoria [4]
• Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art
• University of Melbourne, Vizard Foundation Art Collection [5]