Marie Julou (Tina Mccallan)

About:

Born in Guernsey, Channel Islands in 1964, she studied painting at Portsmouth Polytechnic (B.A 1984-87), the Royal Academy of Arts in London (M.A. 1990-1993) and then she was awarded a DAAD scholarship to study with Gunter Uecker at the Art Academy Dusseldorf (1994-96). At the time she was interested in the spiritual in abstract art, authenticity and female language in painting.

In Germany, her art practice broadened to include installation, performance and film which resulted in several group and solo shows.

Seeing the making of art as a performance and wanting to invite other people to paint with her, in 1999 she made her first “Recreation” project: a collaborative painting project based on an Old Master workshop where the audience of the museum is invited to paint their own masterpiece.

In 2002, commissioned by the National Gallery in London she produced “Piero di Cosimo”, a Recreation project with 100 people. This she considers her “public” extroverted practice.

Subsequent commissions have included: The United Nations Lebanon, The Museum of London, 24 hours in Neukoln, Berlin, The Canakkale Bienalle, Turkey, Glastonbury Festival and the Museo de Belles Artes, Valencia.

Parallel to producing these “Recreations” she has continued to produce abstract paintings in a more “Private” introverted practice exhibiting under the pseudonym of Marie Julou.

Currently Marie is fascinated by the art of “Outsider Artists” such as Laure Pigeon and Georgina Houghton (controversially labelled as such by Jean Dubuffet), i.e., artists who have created work in contexts outside the art institution. Other terms are “Visionary” or “Spirit” artists.

Growing up in materialistic Guernsey, she always felt like an outsider and actively pursues this state of outsider by living in different countries such as Turkey, France, Germany and now Spain.

Recent concerns in her work include the idea of “Horror Vacui”, the fear of empty space. Using pencil on oil paint she draws onto the surface making repetitive marks that resemble doodles, scratching the surface like sgraffito in Italian art. Other works allude to scarification while in some, drips are visible, highlighting gravity’s effect on the paint. The material and meditative process of painting is crucial. Each painting has its own archaeology, a history of colours and marks buried under the final layer.

She currently lives and works in Valencia, Spain.

Bio & Exhibitions

Available Works:


‘Gold & Glitter’

Series ‘Horror Vacui’

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