Bio: Julie Francois is a Haitian-American interdisciplinary artist and museum worker empowered by history as it relates to the present to drive her work and practice. Based out of New England, she holds her BFA from the School of the Museum Fine Arts at Tufts University and is currently working as an Art Bridges Fellow at the Mattatuck Museum, working to diversify museum leadership and curation.

Through the use of vibrant colors, textile details, and medium choices, Julie draws attention to expressions of Black joy, culture, and history to strengthen representational justice in the art world.

Julie’s work has been showcased regionally from Boston, to New York, and Pittsburgh. She’s brought together Tufts University Archive Center and The Africana Center to lead community workshops and has been celebrated in her community from exhibiting at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. She’s given speeches relating to her interdisciplinary art practice at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and the Boston’s Youth in Charge, Speaker Series. In 2023, she was a recipient of the Anne E. Borghesani Grant and the Stephen D. Paine Scholarship from the Boston Art Dealers Association.

Artist Statement: My art grapples with the intersecting aspects of my own identity while expanding the visual vocabulary of race and space. Driven by the Black community, I use our history as it relates to the present to power my artistic narratives. Constantly looking for new modes of storytelling through a variety of mediums, I take inspiration from the world around me, my experiences as a first American generation Black female, and my reflections about the African diaspora.

My art practice is deeply informed by research and time towards historical archives that specifically relate to the Afro-Atlantic identity and Haitian art and history. I integrate visual motifs to relate to memory and nostalgia through printmaking and collage. I call to sacred and African rooted art rituals through material and meaning with glitter and rhinestones. All while simultaneously being in conversation with contemporary art in a growing movement to uplift the
Black identity and visual imagery.

Website: Julie Fran Studio

Social Media: @juliefranstudio