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Julie Heffernan, a nationally exhibited painter, will speak about her work for Washington University's School of Art at 9:30 a.m. Friday, Nov.13. The talk, which is free and open to the public, will take place in the Bixby Hall conference room.
Heffernan, who exhibits her work at two New York galleries, Littlejohn Contemporary and PPOW, paints pictures that at first glance have all the polish of an old master's studio but which, upon further inspection, reveal an incongruent and often humorous overlay of juxtaposed images. In a detail from one typical work, "Self Portrait With Attributes" (1994), a still life of apples is dotted with snatches of text and simple outline drawings -- a woman holding what appears to be a chainsaw, a girl dressed in Victorian costume, a woman with a cow's head.
"Heffernan's paintings use the subversive strategy of humor to illuminate the contradictions and paradoxes of woman's position in the world," said Mary Murphy, lecturer in the art school, who has written about Heffernan for The New Art Examiner.
Heffernan's work has been widely exhibited around the country, both in private galleries and in museums. It has been reviewed in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Art in America, Art Papers and the Chicago Tribune.
Born in Peoria, Ill., Heffernan grew up in northern California and earned degrees in painting from the University of California-Santa Cruz and the Yale School of Art. She has taught at Indiana University-Bloomington, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Pennsylvania State University. She is currently an assistant professor of fine arts at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey.
