Julie Rrap

Background

Her family relocated to a small town, Nerang, in the Hinterlands off the Gold Coast, Queensland, which is where she grew up with her brother Mike Parran artist who she often collaborates with.

Education

A Bachelor of Arts Degree in English, Classic and Fine Arts, completed between 1969 and 1971 at the University of Queensland. Rrap then went to the National Art School at East Sydney Technical College in 1974 to study painting and drawing. In 1975 Rrap worked with members of a performance group (Alex Danko, Mike Parr, Noel Sheridan, Joan Grounds and Tim Burns) from the University of Sydney, as an external student in the ‘Tin Shed’s’ art workshops.

Rrap then studied photo-media at Alexander Mackie College of Advanced in Sydney during 1976.

In 2010 Rrap completed her Doctor of Philosophy at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Career

In 1976, Julie married Bill Brown, a painter. Julie then lived in France and Belgium between 1986 and 1994. Julie Rraps artistic career began in the 1970s where she explored painting, performance, photography, sculpture and video.

In Julie Rraps early career during the 1970s she was running a photographic business with John Delacour who is also a photographer.

The business mainly specialised in reproductions of magazines, catalogues, and fine art books In the 1980s Rrap focused a lot of her time at universities and art schools such as the Australian Centre for Photography, Alexander Mackie College, Medowbank and East Sydney Technical College, and Sydney College of the Arts, providing lectures in art and design, painting, photography, and photo-media.

Julie exhibited her first solo exhibition as Julie Brown in 1982, "Disclosures: A Photographic Construct’ held at the Central Street Gallery. Rrap’s artistic influences throughout her career have always been the human form and how it is represented in media and society, particularly females in Western Society.

Julie Rrap uses this influence to "…poke fun at the stereotypical representations of women transforming these characters into active agents for change." – Julie Rrap.

Using her body, suggestions of the body and representations of the body to complete her work.

Achievements

• 2009, National Artists’ Self-portrait Prize Professional MembershipUniversity of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane. 2009, Clemenger Contemporary Art AwardNational Gallery of Victoria 2008, Redlands Art PrizeMosman Gallery 2007, Project GrantAustralia Council for the Arts 2002, Fellowship GrantAustralia Council for the Arts 2001, Hermans Art Award 1999, Project GrantAustralia Council for the Arts 1997, Cite Des ArtsParis and AGNSW Studio 1995, Multi-Year FellowshipAustralia Council for the Arts 1989, Fellowship GrantAustralia Council for the Arts 1986, Cite Des ArtsParis and Power Institute, University of Sydney.

Membership

In 1975 Rrap worked with members of a performance group (Alex Danko, Mike Parr, Noel Sheridan, Joan Grounds and Tim Burns) from the University of Sydney, as an external student in the ‘Tin Shed’s’ art workshops.