Julie Heffernan creates sensuous figurative painting, like co-Yale MFAS, John Currin and Linda Yuskavage, but her luminous oils are patently unique among them and most working artists today. A Victorian impetus to conjoin, edging toward pastiche, creates artfully staged Surrealist environments. They avoid the mawkish or macabre by virtue of an evocative 17th century Baroque styling and the dignity with which she handles her primary subject, herself. Good construction is essential to the success of such works, built of disparate things suggesting disparate philosophies and ages. Yet the finished product is seamless, making it easy for the viewer to willfully suspend disbelief in the face of rampant artifice. (Read the rest of this art review)

Julie Heffernan’s work is included in many national and international collections, including the Columbia Museum of Art (Columbia, South Carolina), the Virginia Museum of Fine Art (Richmond, Virginia), and the Zabludowicz Art Trust (London, United Kingdom).A traveling retrospective of her work, accompanied by the eponymous catalogue titled Everything that Rises, was organized by the University Art Museum, University of Albany (Albany, New York) in 2006.Her paintings have been featured in solo exhibitions at institutions such as the Lux Art Institute (Encinitas, California), the John Michael Kohler Art Center (Sheboygan, Wisconsin), and the Mint Museum of Art (Charlotte, North Carolina).Her work has garnered critical attention in numerous publications including Artforum, Art in America, Artnews, and The New York Times.Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, she now lives and works in New York

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