Bio

Julia Oldham’s videos and drawings dramatize scientific and mechanical systems and theories. Her subjects have ranged from insect communication to quantum mechanics, which she translates into performances and narratives. She is interested in the sensual aspects of scientific ideas: the unsettling movements of insects as they are interpreted by a human, the potential for love stories within the theories of physics, the mysteries and temptations of an engine in an old car, the poetry of the Big Bang Theory.

Oldham was raised by a physicist, an avid gardener and a pack of dogs in rural Maryland, and her childhood was filled with adventures in the woods, bee stings, drawings, and science experiments. Oldham studied art history at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and then received her MFA from the University of Chicago. She spends her time in New York and Oregon.

Oldham's work has been screened/exhibited at Art in General in New York, NY; MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, NY; PPOW in New York, NY; The Drawing Center in New York, NY; The Bronx Museum of Art in the Bronx, NY; The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, IL; Espaço3 in Lisbon, Portugal; the Dia Foundation at the Hispanic Society in New York, NY; the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC; and Nunnery Gallery in London, UK. Her work has been supported by Artadia, the Fund for Art and Dialogue, New York, NY; Artist in the Marketplace at the Bronx Museum of Art, Bronx, NY; Art in General, New York, NY; Outpost Artist Resources in Ridgewood, NY; Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, Clermont, KY; and the City of Chicago Departent of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, IL.