After dropping out of Rhode Island School of Design at age 19, Speed spent her twenties moving around the U.S. and Canada working pick-up jobs (house painter, horse trainer, ad writer, farm worker etc.) until moving to Texas in 1978 where she settled down and taught herself to paint. She switches back and forth regularly between oil painting, printmaking, collage, gouache and drawing, often combining disciplines. Two large volumes of her work, Julie Speed, Paintings, Constructions and Works on Paper, 2004 and Speed, Art 2003-2009 have been published by the University of Texas. She lives and works in Marfa, Texas. In her words, “I keep hours just like a real job, only longer, and in my spare time I read books, drink tequila, and garden.”

Solo Exhibitions:

  • 2019-2020 Julie Speed : East of the Sun & West of the Moon Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA. Aug 31, 2019 – March 15, 2020

  • 2018-2019 Julie Speed : East of the Sun & West of the Moon El Paso Museum of Art Nov 16, 2018- April 7, 2019

  • 2017 Julie Speed: Excerpts from the Undertoad LHUCA Lubbock, Texas Aug 4 – Sept 30

  • 2016-17 Julie Speed, Evoke Contemporary, Santa Fe, N.M.

  • 2016 Undertoad The International Museum of Art & Science, McAllen, Texas

  • 2016 Undertoad FLATBED PRESS Austin, Texas Feb 18- April 9

  • 2016 Undertoad Ruiz-Healy Art, San Antonio, Texas and Flatbed Press, Austin, Texas Feb 18 – March 19

  • 2014 Julie Speed- Paper Cut: Selected Works on Paper The Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas

  • 2013 Julie Speed: Cut-up Southwest School of Art, San Antonio

  • 2013 Julie Speed: Snug Harbor Nicolaysen Art Museum, Casper, Wyoming Feb 1 – May 12

  • 2012-2013 Julie Speed: Snug Harbor The Longview Museum of Fine Arts , Longview, Texas, Nov 10, 2012 – Jan 1 2013

  • 2011 The Pirate Queen Flatbed Press, Austin, Texas

  • 2011 Julie Speed, Boxes and Collages 2011 and The Pirate Queen & Other New Etchings Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, N.Y.

  • 2010 Julie Speed: Not From Here, Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, N.Y.

  • 2009 Julie Speed, New Work/New Book Galleri Urbane, Dallas, Texas

  • 2009 Julie Speed, Recent Collages, Boxes, Gouaches and Floaters, Galleri Urbane, Marfa, Texas

  • 2008 Julie Speed, George Billis Gallery, NY, N.Y.

  • 2008 Julie Speed George Billis Gallery L.A. Ca.

  • 2007 Talking Room, Galleri Urbane, Marfa, Texas

  • 2007 Bible Studies, Westby Gallery, Rowan University, New Jersey

  • 2006 Heads, Gerald Peters Gallery, Dallas, Texas

  • Bible Studies, Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, New York

  • 2005 Bible Studies, Gerald Peters Gallery, Dallas, Texas

  • 2005 Bible Studies, Flatbed Press, Austin, Texas

  • 2005 Bible Studies, Galleri Urbane, Marfa, Texas

  • 2005 Julie Speed, Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, New York

  • 2004 Julie Speed, Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, San Antonio, Texas

  • 2004 Julie Speed: Squares, Gerald Peters Gallery, Dallas, Texas

  • 2003 The Alters of My Ancestors, Jones Center for Contemporary Art, Austin, Texas

  • 2003 The Alters of My Ancestors, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas

  • 2003 The Murder of Kasimir Malevich, etc., Etherington Fine Art, Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts

  • 2002 The Alters of My Ancestors, Pillsbury and Peters Fine Art, Dallas, Texas

  • 2002 The Alters of My Ancestors, The Nave Museum, Victoria, Texas

  • 2002 The Alters of My Ancestors, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, Texas,

  • 2000 Julie Speed, New Work, McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas

  • 1999 Queen of My Room: A Survey of Work by Julie Speed 1989 – 1999, Austin Museum of Art, Austin, Texas

  • 1989 – 1999 Queen of My Room: A Survey of Work by Julie Speed 1989 – 1999 DVAC, Dallas, Texas

  • 1989 – 1999 Queen of My Room: A Survey of Work by Julie Speed 1989 – 1999 Galveston Art Center, Galveston, Texas

  • 1989 – 1999 Queen of My Room: A Survey of Work by Julie Speed 1989 – 1999 Art Institute of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas

  • 1997 Allene La Pides Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

  • 1997 McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas

  • 1996 Allene La Pides Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

  • 1995 Tarrytown Gallery, Austin, Texas

  • 1995 Davidson Galleries, Seattle, Washington

  • 1994 Carrington-Gallagher Gallery, San Antonio, Texas

  • 1994 Ron Hall Gallery, Dallas, Texas

  • 1993 Jansen-Perez Gallery, San Antonio, Texas

  • 1992 Tarrytown Gallery, Austin, Texas

  • 1991 Guerilla Gallery, Austin, Texas

  • 1990 Scott Alan Gallery, New York, New York

  • 1989 J. B. Tollett Gallery, Austin, Texas

  • 1989 Joy Horwich Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

  • 1985 Foxworth Gallery, NY, NY

Books and Catalogs

2018 Julie Speed : East of the Sun & West of the Moon published by the El Paso Museum of Art
2015 Julie Speed – Undertoad, jointly published by Flatbed Press, Austin and Ruiz-Healy Art, San Antonio. Essay by Lyle W. Williams, curator of prints and drawings, the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio.
2014 Julie Speed – Paper Cut: Selected Works on Paper, published by the Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas “Reality Redefined”, essay by Judy Tedford Deaton, Chief Curator, The Grace Museum
2013 Julie Speed: Snug Harbor, jointly published by The Longview Museum of Art and The Nicolaysen Museum of Art , essay “A Conversation between Julie Speed and Lisa Hatchadoorian”
2013 Julie Speed; Cut-Up, published by the Southwest School of Art, essay “Force of Confusion”, by Leigh Baldwin
2012 Speed & Rizzie: In One Room, essay by Mary Etherington, published by The Gerald Peters Gallery
2009 SPEED, ART 2003-2009 Artwork and essay, Tracking by Julie Speed, response fiction, Do You Hear What I Hear? by A.M. Homes, essay, The Moral Painter: The Art of Julie Speed by Elizabeth Ferrer, published by the University of Texas Press
2006 HEADS - Julie Speed Cloverleaf Press
2005 Julie Speed, essay Julie Speed, Iconoclast by Barbara Rose, published by Gerald Peters Gallery, N.Y.
2004 Julie Speed: Paintings, Constructions and Works on Paper, essay, Julie Speed, The Art of Metaphor by Dr. Edmund Pillsbury and essay Speed Time by Elizabeth Ferrer, published by the University of Texas Press
2002 Alters of My Ancestors, jointly published by the Nave Museum, Lawndale Art Center, The Art Museum of South Texas , essay, Julie Speed’s Altered Ancestors by Dana Friis-Hansen and Julie Speed and the Art of Transformation by Edmund P. Pillsbury, Ph.D
1999 Julie Speed – Queen of My Room. Julie Speed and Elizabeth Ferrer, published by the Austin Museum of Art

Other:

Flatbed Press at 25 by Mark Lesly Smith (Author), Katherine Brimberry (Author), Susan Tallman (Introduction) published by the University of Texas Press 2016
The Art of Found Objects: Interviews with Texas Artists by Robert Craig Bunch, published by Texas A&M University Press 2016
Queen of Her Room, 30 min. doc. For Gallery HD TV NY produced by Karen Bernstein.
Texas Monthly Talks, 30 min. interview with Evan Smith KLRU TV PBS.
Austin Now, Julie Speed produced by Domenique Bellavia KLRU television
"I [art] Marfa", exilés artistiques au Texas 3/5, Episode 2: Julie Speed, artiste by Katie Callan et Sebastien Carayol, Produit par: Petit Dragon, en association avec ARTE France 3/7/2014
A (Third) Eye for Detail by Antoine Sanfuentes MSNBC.msn.com