Feature Artist
Every year, an established South Australian artist is celebrated as the SALA Feature Artist.
This artist’s work features on the SALA poster and printed program, and will be exhibited during the SALA Festival.
Julia Robinson - 2024 Feature artist
Julia Robinson is a South Australian visual artist working in the fields of sculpture and installation. Her work reflects an interest in pre-Christian rituals and calendrical customs relating to fertility and the cycle of the seasons, and by extension, cycles of growth and decay. Looking to her British ancestry as a starting point, Robinson creates objects that sit at the intersection of folklore, ritual and folk horror, a genre currently experiencing a revival through films, literature and music. Recent works employ historical costuming and sewing techniques to examine narratives around fecundity, sex, and death, and evoke forms in a state of metamorphosis.
Since graduating from Adelaide Central School of Art Julia has exhibited regularly and been the recipient of a number of grants and awards. Recent exhibitions include The Beckoning Blade at Hugo Michell Gallery, Monster Theatres: 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art at The Santos Museum of Economic Botany, The National 2019: New Australian Art at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Long Ballads at Ideas Platform Artspace and Sensual Nature at the Fremantle Arts Centre. Julia lectures in the BVA program at Adelaide Central School of Art. Her work is held in the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Artbank, Tamworth Regional Gallery and private collections.
Julia Robinson is represented by Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide.
More about Julia
The selection of this artist is tied to the outcome of the South Australian Living Artist Publication – the successful recipient becomes the SALA Feature Artist. The publication is produced by Wakefield Press and is intended to profile the work of an established South Australian visual artist with a track record of achievement in their area of practice. Applications for this opportunity are facilitated by the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
PAST Feature artists
Past SALA feature artists include: Helen Fuller, (2023), Mark Valenzuela (2022), Roy Ananda (2021), Kirsten Coelho (2020), Louise Haselton (2019), Clare Belfrage (2018), Christopher Orchard (2017), Catherine Truman (2016), Giles Bettison (2015), Nicholas Folland (2014) and many more.
Discover more by exploring our Feature Artist Archive.
Banner image (L-R): Alexandrea Cannon (Chairperson of the SALA Festival Board), Andrea Michaels (Minister for Arts), Helen Fuller (2023 SALA Feature Artist), Mark Valenzuela (2022 SALA Feature Artist), and Kate Moskwa (CEO of SALA Festival) at the SALA Festival Opening Night at the Art Gallery of South Australia, 2022. Photo: Daniel Marks
