Julie Fragar was born in Gosford, NSW in 1977. She graduated with a BA (Hons) in Visual Arts from the University of Sydney in 1998 and returned to the university three years later completing her Masters in Visual Arts. She is currently undertaking her Doctorate of Visual Arts at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane.
Fragar takes her initial starting point from snapshots and disrupts the canvas to create a double reconstruction. Autobiographical subjects resonate in her work including family, friends, herself and her interests. Influenced by nineteenth century French artist, Gustave Courbet, Fragar translates his work to suit her own life and surroundings in contemporary Brisbane where she now lives. Fragar’s work often contains text and again she subverts the traditional notion of word formation, frequently grouping words together in a linear fashion.
Fragar has exhibited her work since the late 1990s, holding solo shows in Sydney and Brisbane including MEET ME AT AN ARMS LENGTH, Heiser Gallery (2010);Your Place and/or Mine, MSSR Projects, Sydney (2009); LIAR, Sarah Cottier Gallery Sydney (2008) and DADISLIKEITTOO, Griffith University College Gallery, Brisbane (2007).
The artist’s work has been curated in a number of group shows the most recent being Primavera 2010, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and touring (2010/11); WILDERNESS, Balnaves Contemporary Painting, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2010); GAZE. People, Relationships and Place, Redlands Art Gallery (2010/11); Art out of Water: The Fish of Art, Lismore Regional Gallery (2010); Temperature 2: New Brisbane Art, Museum of Art, Brisbane (2009); New Order: Emergent Queensland Artists, Redcliffe Regional Gallery, Brisbane (2009) and OPTIMISM, Contemporary Australia, GOMA Brisbane (2008).
Fragar’s work is represented in a number of collections including the Queensland Art Gallery/GOMA, Art Gallery of New South Wales, University of Queensland Art Museum, Griffith University Art Collection, Gold Coast City Art Gallery and The Maitland Regional Gallery, New South Wales.
Image: Built Environment #4
