Isaac Julien
A guide to the moving image artists that move culture.
Who is Isaac Julien?
Sir Isaac Julien is a British filmmaker and installation artist with origins in St. Lucia. Born in 1960 in London's East End, he graduated from St. Martin's School of Art in 1985. He lives between London, England and Santa Cruz, California.
What characterizes Isaac Julien's art?
Julien is primarily known for his multi-screen film installations and photographs. His artistic vision is an amalgamation of different disciplines, ranging from film, dance, and photography to music, theater, painting and sculpture, erasing the boundaries between them in the crucible of his imagination and bringing them together to narrate powerful stories to the public.
Julien's work thematically revolves around the issues of Black and gay identity, though some other topics which he incorporates into his art includes class, sexuality, migration, and artistic and cultural history. By utilizing multiple channels to convey differing narratives, Julien exposes the fragmentary nature of historical memory, while also attempting to find an element that unifies them.
Where have Isaac Julien's works been shown?
Throughout his long and illustrious career Julien's art has been displayed at and is included in the collections of a variety of prominent venues: The Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego; Centre Pompidou in Paris; and the Tate in London.
He has participated in important international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale, Gwangju Biennial, Prospect 1 in New Orleans, Performa 7 in New York and documenta 11 in Kassel. His newest installation Once Again... (Statues Never Die) is currently on view at the Whitney Biennial 2024 in New York. His recent installation Lessons of the Hour is currently on view at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
A major career retrospective is currently on view at Bonnefanten in Maastricht. This is Julien's first retrospective in the Netherlands and it covers more than 40 years of his practice across film and video.
What awards and other recognitions has Isaac Julien received?
Julien has received the following accolades: the Charles Wollaston Award from the Royal Academy of Arts in 2017; Teddy Award for Best Short Film at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1989; the 2016-2017 Brudner Prize at Yale University; and the David R Kessler Award for LGBTQ Studies in 2004.
For his service to arts, Julien was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire at the 2017 Birthday Honours, while he was knighted for his contributions to diversity and inclusion in art at the 2022 Birthday Honours.
What is Isaac Julien currently working on?
Isaac Julien currently holds the positions of Distinguished Professor of Arts at the University of California, Santa Cruz; and Professor at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design.
In May 2024, the Isaac Julien Lab at UC Santa Cruz received a $1M grant from the Mellon Foundation to support the establishment of the Moving Image Lab. This initiative is in partnership with The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz. The project will be overseen by Julien with his collaborator Professor Mark Nash.
Where can I find more information about Isaac Julien?
To find out more about Julien see his studio site. The galleries that represent Julien also have information on their sites: Victoria Miro, London; Metro Pictures, New York; and Ron Mandos Galerie, Amsterdam.