Julia Dixon is a representational painter based in Western Massachusetts. She received her BFA from Purchase College, State University of New York, in 2005 and her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2014. She transitioned to mostly-full-time painting in 2020 after a 15-year arts management and consulting career. In that time, her artistic focus was on traditional portraiture. She has a long-standing fascination with a person’s face; the soul buried beneath it, the delicacy of feelings revealed, and the power of the representations left in its absence. However, she is becoming increasingly interested in narrative portraiture and has begun deeper explorations of symbolism and still lifes.
Awards and Grants
2023 Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation’s Martha Boschen Porter Fund grantee
2023 Portrait Society of America’s Cecilia Beaux Forum Mentoring Program
2022 Mass Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in Painting
2021 Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation’s Artist’s Resource Trust (A.R.T.) Fund for Individuals grantee
2021 Patricia Warfield Jinishian Figurative Award, 71st A•ONE, Silvermine Arts Center
2021 Jackson’s Painting Prize longlist
2021 Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire grantee
2021 Mass Cultural Council COVID-19 Relief Fund grantee
2020 Best in Show, Art of the Hills: Narrative, Berkshire Museum
2018 MASS MoCA’s Assets for Artists: North Adams Project grantee
Solo Exhibitions
2022 Memento Mori, Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA
Group Exhibitions
2023 Narrations, Silvermine Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
2021 71st A•ONE, Silvermine Arts Center, New Canaan, CT / Juror: Richard Klein
2021 FLORA, Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA / Juror: Mark Dion
2020 Art of the Hills: Narrative, Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA / Jurors: Seung Lee, Amy Myers
2018 Art of the Hills, Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA (inaugural biennial) / Juror: Ryan Seslow
2018 shel•ter, MCLA Gallery 51, North Adams, MA
2017 Exploring Portraiture, Confluence Gallery, Readsboro, VT
2012 Covet, Ferrin Gallery, Pittsfield, MA
2012 People I Know, NAACO Gallery, North Adams, MA (two-person)
2008 UNADORNED: An Exhibition of Portraiture, 3rd Rail Studio, New Rochelle, NY
2008 Julia Dixon and Christopher Manning, Manhattanville College, Purchase, NY (two-person)
2006 Best of SUNY Student Art Exhibition, New York State Museum, Albany, NY
2005 Fall SUNY Student Art Exhibition, State University Plaza, Albany, NY
Curations
2017 Sound Machines, Eclipse Mill Gallery, North Adams, MA
2014 A Mermaid and Three Heads of Cabbage, DownStreet Art, North Adams, MA
2009 RUBBISH! Art and the Ecosystem, ArtsWestchester, White Plains, NY
2009 Hanging by a Thread, ArtsWestchester, White Plains, NY
2008 UNADORNED: An Exhibition of Portraiture, 3rd Rail Studio, New Rochelle, NY