Short Bio

Julie McDonald is an Australian contemporary artist working across painting, textile, paper, and wall-based assemblage. Her practice engages feminist material discourse, examining women’s lived experience through symbolic domestic materials and restrained, object-based composition. Drawing on embodied memory, custodianship, and the ethics of care, McDonald’s works operate as acts of witnessing — addressing visibility, transition, and the cultural inscription of the female body. Recent bodies of work, including the painted Uterus Series and BE-ing, extend her investigation into material presence and narrative containment. She maintains a studio practice in Tasmania and exhibits nationally.

About the Practice

Julie McDonald (b. 1960, Newcastle, NSW, Australia) is visual artist based in Tasmania, Australia. Working across painting, assemblage, and drawing, she uses a diverse range of materials including inks, gouache, acrylics, charcoal, fabrics, enamel on paper and canvas, alongside sculptural forms created with ready-made objects, wire, and found materials. McDonald is best known for a distinctive visual language that conveys female stories through symbolic and metaphorical representation.

Her practice explores Womanhood, informed by lived experience and contemporary expression. The work is shaped by material sensitivity and the deliberate use of layered symbolism, engaging with themes of cultural identity, resilience, and reinvention. Key projects have emerged from her artist residency at Quamby Estate, Tasmania, Australia—including The Uterus Collection and BE-ing, now complete, and Red Thread,, an ongoing body of work. All are grounded in personal and collective narratives.

Julie McDonald has exhibited widely across Australia, including Poimena Art Gallery in Launceston, Working Dog Gallery in Sydney, Waterline Art Gallery in Ettalong, and the Gosford Regional Gallery. She has participated in group exhibitions such as Source (Meander Valley Art Award, 2024,25), Time is Now (2023), and Summer Salon (2024,25,26), and has received multiple awards including two Judge’s Choice Awards at Art Trails Tasmania (2024), Winner of the Central Coast Art Competition (2018), and Highly Commended (2019). Her work is held in private collections nationally and internationally. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours, 2022–2023) from the University of Tasmania, a Graduate Diploma of Education (Art, 2004–2002), and a Bachelor of Visual Communication (Art, 1998–2002), both from the University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia.

CV                                              

Born in 1960 in Newcastle, Australia
Resides and works in Tasmania, Australia

 

EDUCATION

2022-2023: Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours), University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia.
2022-2004: Graduate Diploma of Education (Art), University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia.
1998-2002: Bachelor of Visual Communication (Art & Design)), University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia.
1997: Open Foundation, (English Lit and Art) University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia.

 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2020, In Search of Beauty: A Remix of Nature, Waterline Art Gallery, Ettalong, Australia.

 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026, Summer Salon, Poimena Art Gallery, Launceston, Australia

2025, Meander Valley Art Award, Tasmania, Australia

2024, Meander Valley Art Award, Tasmania, Australia.
2024, Midlands Group, Campbelltown, Tasmania, Australia.
2024, Arts Trails Tasmania, Westbury, Tasmania, Australia.
2024, Post Graduate Exhibition, The Grove, Launceston, Australia.
2024, Summer Salon, Poimena Art Gallery, Launceston, Australia.
2023, Honours of Fine Art Graduation, UTAS, Launceston, Australia.
2023, Time is Now, 12 Artists, Working Dog Gallery, Sydney, Australia.
2022, Longford Blooms, Longford, Tasmania, Australia.
2022, Metamorphosis, Meander Valley Art Award, Deloraine, Australia.
2022, Arts Trails Tasmania, Deloraine, Tasmania, Australia.
2021, For the Love of Country, Gloucester Gallery, Gloucester, Australia.
2020, Summer Exhibition, Gosford Regional Gallery, Gosford, Australia
2020, Nature’s Expressions, Gosford Regional Gallery, Gosford, Australia.
2019, The 3 Degrees of Friendships, Gosford Regional Gallery, Gosford, Australia.

  

AWARDS

2024, Judge’s Choice, Art Trails Tasmania, Westbury, Tasmania. Australia.
2024, Judge’s Choice, Art Trails Tasmania, Deloraine, Tasmania. Australia
2019, Highly Commended, Central Coast Art Competition, Gosford, Australia.
2018, Winner, Central Coast Art Competition, Gosford, Australia.

 

RESIDENCIES

2025/26, Quamby Estate, Hagley, Australia.
2023, Artist in Residence, Launceston Church Grammar School, Launceston, Australia.

 

PROFESSIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS

2013: Artist Directing artwork for NBN Roll Out, Central Coast, Australia.
2002: Seahorse Studies, Australian Reptile Park, Gosford, Australia.
2002: Sculpture, Breast Screen, NSW, Erina, Australia.
2002-2004: Drawings in Murdoch Magazines, Printed Publications, Sydney, Australia.

GRANTS

Year, Grant, institution/museum/location, place, country