Icons and Monuments developed from an examination into the question of how the Good Life is enshrined in public art and commemorative monuments. This question framed a course I was teaching that delved into the fraught history regarding Confederate Monuments, brought to national attention by the White Nationalists attack in Charlottesville, the visit of Richard Spencer to UF, and the removal of a confederate monument from the local county courthouse. This research resonates with my long interest in medieval religious iconography and how images are used to embedded meaning in culture. With over seven hundred monuments still standing in public spaces I have been reflecting on how monuments can become vehicles for transformation rather than agents of oppression and tyranny.
Icons +
Monuments
News
Current and Upcoming Exhibitions:
2022
Florida School of the Arts, Palatka, FL
Into the Woods: Out of the Woods,
Thomas Center for the Arts, Gainesville, FL
Greenville Center for Creative Arts, SC
April 1 - May 25, 2022
Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL
Underwater Mural project A Parallel Place: Ode to Foucault was just completed at City Hall, City of Gainesville. Check out this video
https://www.gainesville.com/news/20200112/city-hall-mural-completed

Work:
My paintings don’t hold secrets or grand revelations. They are not puzzles to be solved; they are open conversations with the history of painting and the oceans of imagery I engage (with) daily. In the studio I challenge myself to bring together the constant exchange of information, hold it still, and make that instant of stillness into a painting.
Julia Morrisroe
University of Florida
School of Art and Art History
P O Box 115801
Gainesville, FL 32605