Julie Speidel
“Continuum”
J. Willott Gallery | January 2023
An artist of extraordinary creative vitality spanning five illustrious decades, Julie Speidel celebrates a pentagonal prism of accomplishment in 2023 with this fiftieth anniversary exhibition, Continuum. An artistic force and fixture at J. Willott Gallery since 2010, the kinesis of Speidel’s evolving work is punctuated by five distinct steps paced throughout fifty remarkable years.
Seemingly without specific origin or timeless end, her thoughtful combination of simple, effortless shapes have become a symbolic artistic monument forever encapsulating her career. Imagery of cascading circles, stones and steps are ever present in physical and metaphorical ways as Speidel’s work is deeply influenced by a lifelong international education steeped in early cultures, archaeology and lore. From this initial foundation, her creations were revealed over time as welded metal forms, jewelry designs, sculptures and ultimately oil on paper.
Woven throughout Speidel’s fifty years are abstract modernist principles seen in every chosen genre revealing layered concentric meaning, the magic of cultural ties and a near obsession with myth and mystery. While often underscoring an oblique feminist commentary, a Speidel piece is also composed to reveal balance, illusion and connection.
Always revered as an internationally recognized sculptor, it is unknown to many that an artistic commencement in jewelry preceded her accomplishments on the grand sculptural scale. A serendipitous 1973 foray with fire, metal and stone marked the beginning of the now completed circle, celebrated today as three genres are intertwined—jewelry, sculpture and paper—the infinite Speidel Continuum.
About the Artist
Julie Speidel’s sculptures engage an extraordinary array of cultural influences, reaching back through antiquity to the stone- and bronze-age peoples of Europe, the early Buddhists of China, the indigenous tribes of her native Pacific Northwest, and on into twentieth-century modernism. Depending on our own spheres of knowledge, we may find in her work echoes of the British Isles’ megalithic stone structures, Cycladic Greek fertility figures, Native American totem poles, and dozens of other iconic cultural forms, some universally recognized, others buried by history. At the same time, her work is strongly linked to that of modernists like Henry Moore and Picasso, who were likewise enormously influenced by the language of antiquity and sought to reinterpret it through a contemporary lens.
Speidel often works at the intersection between figuration and abstraction, suggesting the human form through combinations of elegantly simple shapes. At times, her sculptures appear to diverge from the figure altogether, but they often preserve the basic components of bodies: circles and ovals evocative of heads, vertical forms echoing limbs. On the other hand, they seem inextricably linked to the natural world, their forms equally influenced by boulders and trees. It’s a dichotomy that, at its core, taps directly into the intimate connection ancient people felt with the earth.
“The inspiration for my work is rooted in the power of travel,” Speidel remarks, and indeed, her sculptures assimilate cultural influences in a manner reminiscent of traveloque–organic and intuitive, not academic or preordained. Her work encourages us to make complex associations, but it delights as well in purely formal properties; color, carefully poised compositions, the natural qualities of bronze, glass, and stone. Seen in a landscape, Speidel’s sculptures have a Zen-like relationship with the surrounding area, humbling themselves to the natural world while simultaneously enhancing it, amplifying its effect. When installed indoors, they act as oases of nature, exuding an enigmatic, earthly quality despite their manmade origins, as if in conversation with the organic universe. This, perhaps, is among the most remarkable aspects of Speidel’s sculpture; its capacity to engage in dialogue with the world–not only with its natural elements, but also with the whole of human history and art.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 “Continuum”, J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2022 “Shikaku – Sense of Sight”, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY
“Equipoise”, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
Works on Paper, J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2021 “Carnac”, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
Works on Paper, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
Works on Paper Introducing Tribute to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg,
J.Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2020 Works on Paper, J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2019 Works on Paper, J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2018 “Fragments of Transcendence”, J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2017 “Continuities”, Winston Wächter, New York, NY
“Open Boundaries”, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
“Journey Across Culture”, J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
“Calhau”, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
2016 “Arundel”, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
Works on Paper, J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2015 Works on Paper, J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2014 “Pactolus”, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
“Hermus”, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, St. Helena, CA
“Native Ground”, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
2013 “Sculpture in the Landscape”, Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Island, WA
2012 “Kohatu”, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
2011 “Gopura”, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA “Cerrig Wen”, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID “Tempat”, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY
2010 “Apposition”, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2009 “Overlay”, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008 Benches, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY “Yorro Yorro”, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA Recent Sculpture, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, St. Helena, CA
2007 “Sibu”, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID “Chalcidice”, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
2006 “Govannon”, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2005 “Ancient Deities”, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2004 “Unearthed”, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
2003 “Chakpori,” Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2002 “Nod to Xian”, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2001 “Cerne Abbas”, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2000 “Threshold Guardians”, Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, WA
Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
1999 Blue Heron Art Gallery, Vashon Allied Arts, Vashon Island, WA
Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
1998 “Mani”, Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, WA Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
1997 Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
1996 Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID “Of All Things Yielding”, Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, WA
1995 Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
1994 “Open Ground”, Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, WA
1993 Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
1992 New Works, Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, WA
Olga Dollar Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1990 New Bronze Sculpture, Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, WA
1988 Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, WA
Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
1987 “From the Circle”, Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle WA
Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017 “Color V”, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2016 San Francisco Art Market, San Francisco, CA
“Cultural Sculpture”, J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
Seattle Art Fair, Seattle, WA
“BAM Biennial 2016: Metalmorphosis,” Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA “The Experience of Color,” Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2015 Market Art and Design, Bridgehampton, NY
San Francisco Art Market, San Francisco, CA
Seattle Art Fair, Seattle, WA
2014 “Color III”, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2013 “Art in Architecture”, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA
“Grand Opening”, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Bainbridge Island, WA
“Honoring our Landscape II”, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
Forré & Co. Fine Art Gallery, Aspen, CO
J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2012 National Altar Guild Association Art Exhibit, Indianopolis, IN
Voigt Family Foundation Invitational, “The Spirit of the Man”, Santa Rosa, CA
Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, OR
A Sense of place XVI – Landscape, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2011 “Jim Olson: Architecture for Art”, Museum of Art/Washington State University, Pullman, WA
“Marks and Conversations II”, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
Forré & Co. Fine Art Gallery, Aspen, CO
J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
Seattle Art Museum: Gardens of Art”, Hunts Point, WA
2010 Whatcom Museum Lightcatcher Building, Bellingham, WA
“A Concise History of Northwest Art”, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
Olympic Small & Large Art Exhibit, Blaine, WA
Group Contemporary and Landscape, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
Maryhill Museum, Goldendale, WA
2008 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, St. Helena, CA Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
2007 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY
Julie Nester Gallery, Park City, UT
Susan Street Fine Art, Solana Beach, CA Cornish Alumni Exhibition, Seattle, WA
Outdoor Sculpture Invitational, Westcott Bay Reserve, Friday Harbor, WA
Bellevue Art Museum Plaza, Bellevue, WA
COMMISSIONS AND COLLECTIONS
Amazon Doppler Building, Seattle, WA
American Greetings World Headquarters, Westlake, OH
AT&T Gateway Tower-Seattle Municipal Tower, Seattle, WA
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, permanent collection, Bainbridge, WA
Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA
Bellevue Towers, two site-specific sculptures, Bellevue, WA
Bentall Corporation, Puget Sound Energy Summit Building, Bellevue, WA
Boeing Commercial Airplane Group Headquarters, Tukwila, WA
Central Oregon Community College, site-specific sculpture, Bend, OR
Century Square Building, Seattle, WA
Courthouse Square, Vashon Island, WA
Daniels Real Estate, F5 Tower, Seattle, WA
ERA Care, University House at Wallingford, Seattle, WA
Gardner Corporation, Grove Plaza, Boise, ID
Gerding Edlen, Portland, OR
Golden Umbrella Award, One Reel, Seattle, WA
Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, Salem, OR
Hines Development Corporation, One Twelfth @ Twelfth Office Building, Bellevue, WA
Hughes Landing, The Woodlands, TX
Jacob Lawrence Golden Umbrella Award, One Reel, Seattle, WA
Jewish Family Services, site-specific sculpture, Seattle, WA
Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, Althea Stroum Award, WA
The Keg Restaurants, Vancouver, Canada – several locations
King County Public Library, Shoreline, WA
Kirkland Gateway Project, City of Kirkland, Kirkland, WA
Kirkland and Ellis, LLP, Palo Alto, CA
Kubota Garden, Seattle, WA
Lane Powell Spears Lubersky, LLP, Seattle, WA
Lennar Corporation, The Lakes, West Covina, CA
Lerner Corporation, Fallsgrove Plaza, Rockville, MD
Meydenbauer Performing Arts Center, Bellevue, WA
Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA
Nordstrom Corporation (seven national locations)
Northwest College of the Nazarene, Nampa, ID
Oracle Corporation, Redwood Shores, CA
Paccar Corporation, Bellevue, WA
Pilchuck Glass School, Hauberg Memorial, Stanwood, WA
Plaza Yarrow Bay, Kirkland, WA
Portland Art Museum, Portland OR
Portview Trade Centre, City of Belfast, Ireland
Quail Lodge, Carmel, CA
Red Rock Hotel, Las Vegas, NV
Runnymede Sculpture Farm, Woodside, CA
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Bezos Clinic, Seattle, WA
Seattle University School of Law, Dean’s Office, Seattle, WA
Sellen Construction Corporate Office, Seattle, WA
Shafer Vineyard, site-specific sculpture, Napa, CA
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, baptismal font, altar, tabernacle, Seattle, WA
Suncadia Resort, Suncadia Trail: Roslyn’s History in 14 Sculptures, Roslyn, WA
Swedish Hospital, Seattle, WA
Swedish Medical Center/Issaquah Campus, Issaquah Highlands, WA
Swedish Orthopedic Institute, site-specific sculpture, Seattle, WA
Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA – permanent collection and site specific collection
United States Embassies Collection, three embassies
University of Washington, Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering, Alberg Terrace, Seattle, WA
Vashon Center for the Arts, Vashon Island, WA
William Kenzo Nakamura U.S. Courthouse, Judge Sharp Memorial, Seattle, WA
YWCA Opportunity Place, Seattle, WA
Zymogenetics, Seattle, WA
EDUCATION
1967-1968
Cornish Institute, Seattle, WA
1961-1963
University of Grenoble, France
1959-1961
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
COMMISSIONS AND COLLECTIONS
AT&T Gateway Tower, Seattle, WA
Bellevue Towers, two site-specific sculptures, Bellevue, WA
Bentall Corporation, Puget Sound Energy Summit Building, Bellevue, WA
Boeing Commercial Airplane Group Headquarters, Tukwila, WA
Cairncross & Hemplemann, Seattle, WA
Central Oregon Community College, site-specific sculpture, Bend, OR
Courthouse Square, Vashon Island, WA
Davidson, Czeisler, Kilpatrick & Gardner, Kirkland, WA
ERA Care, University House at Wallingford, Seattle, WA
Federal Courthouse, Judge Sharp Memorial, General Services Administration, Seattle, WA
Gateway Park, Kirkland, WA
Gerding Edlen, Portland, OR
Golden Umbrella Award, One Reel, Seattle, WA
Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Wilamette Uniersity Salem, OR
Heller Ehrman Law Firm, New York, NY
Hines Development Corporation, One Twelfth @ Twelfth Office Building, Bellevue, WA
Jacob Lawrence Golden Umbrella Award, One Reel, Seattle, WA
Jewish Family Services, site-specific sculpture, Seattle, WA
Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, Althea Stroum Award
Kirkland and Ellis, LLP, Palo Alto, CA
Lane Powell Spears Lubersky, LLP, Seattle, WA
McInerney & Baker, Seattle, WA
Meydenbauer Performing Arts Center, Bellevue, WA
Nordstrom Corporation (seven national locations)
Ober Park, Vashon, WA
Oracle Corporation, Redwood Shores, CA
Paccar Corporation, Bellevue, WA
Pilchuck Glass School, Hauberg Memorial, Stanwood, WA
Plaza at Yarrow Bay, Kirkland, WA
Red Rock Hotel, Las Vegas, NV
Runnymede Sculpture Farm, Woodside, CA
Seattle University School of Law, Dean’s Office, Seattle, WA
Sellen Construction Corporate Office, Seattle, WA
Shafer Vineyard, site-specific sculpture, Napa, CA
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, baptismal font, altar, candleholders, Seattle, WA
Suncadia Resort, Suncadia Trail: Roslyn’s History in 14 Sculptures, Roslyn, WA
Swedish Hospital, Seattle, WA
Swedish Medical Center/Issaquah Campus, Issaquah Highlands, WA
Swedish Orthopedic Institute, site-specific sculpture, Seattle, WA
Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA, Permanent Collection
United States Embassies Collection, three embassies
University of Washington, Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering, Alberg Terrace, Seattle, WA
Ventana Vineyards, private wine label, Monterey, CA
YWCA Opportunity Place, Seattle, WA
Zymogenetics, Seattle, WA
