Lullabies in Exile A solo show by Julie Gladstone featuring 40 original art works across mediums including painting, textiles, photography, installation, video and soundscapes spanning from 2019 to the present. The work builds explores the Sephardic Diaspora, Ladino Lullabies, ancestral and generational healing, matrilineal inheritance, ritual innovation, building relationships to land and water, motherhood and locating home as an internal space.
OPENING RECEPTION Wed. November 16th, 5 - 7pm
LOCATION Redeemer University Art Gallery 777 Garner Rd. East Ancaster, Ontario
River Variations
a duo show with Julie Gladstone and Vanessa McKernan
Opens at Wall Space Gallery May 27 - June 19 2021
VIRTUAL OPENING RECEPTION Thursday May 27, 2021 7pm
REGISTER HERE: https://www.wallspacegallery.ca/river-variations-by-vanessa-mckernan-julie-gladstone
PAINTING 2020
John. B Aird Gallery
Juried by Niki Drakos of Hardware Contemporary
Curated by Erin Storus
online art publication
I'm thrilled to have two paintings included in the online Painting 2020 exhibition and publication at John. B Aird Gallery curated by emerging curator Erin Storus and Juried by Niki Dracos, the principal director of General Hardware Contemporary, Painting 2020 is John B. Aird’s annual showcase of paintings by contemporary Canadian artists. For this exhibition, a painting is defined as a work of art made from paint applied to canvas, wood, paper, or other platforms. This broad definition is intended to open the exhibition to entries reflecting a wide variety of contemporary and modern painting techniques and practices.
Prayer Shawl with Butterflies, Wildflowers and Amulets
oil on panel, 48" x 36" 2019
$5000 INQUIRE
Hommage to Ventura Lirios (Homeland)
48" x 48", oil on canvas, 2019
$5000 INQUIRE
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I'm thrilled to be a guest on AOWTV!
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 30th, 2020
8pm with Toronto Goth Rock band Ace of Wands
on Instagram Live. Follow Ace of Wands on Instagram: @aceofwandsband
ACE OF WANDS IS A GOTHIC ROCK/POP BAND FROM TORONTO. SONGWRITER LEE ROSE IS JOINED BY ANNA MERNIEKS AND JODY BRUMELL TO BLEND SOARING VOCALS, VIOLIN, SYNTH-BASS, GUITAR AND DRUMS INTO SONGS INSPIRED BY THE SUPERNATURAL, ELEMENTAL FORCES AND PHYSICAL SENSATION. MOTIVATED BY THE TAROT CARD OF THE SAME NAME, THE MUSIC IS ABOUT WILL AND DETERMINATION; TO CREATE AND DESTROY, AND TO BRING ABOUT PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION.
We will talk about exploring ancestry, humanity and how artistic practice flows with spiritual expression.
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Julie Gladstone is an interdisciplinary artist from Toronto, working with paint, textiles, sculpture and photography. Here are some words from Julie on her painting work (website link in bio for more!):
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I see my paintings as metaphysical landscapes that explore the interaction between human beings, the five elements, outerspace, the dream world, meditative states, the urban environment, nature and water in all of it’s forms. I’m an abstract painter because abstraction allows me to explore the invisible realm and to show connections that are otherwise unquantifiable or unempirical.
I'm thrilled to have work included in the virtual Artist/Mother Podcast Juried exhibition curated by Qiana Mestrich:
You are not Wonderful Just Because you are a Mother.
https://artistmotherpodcast.com/you-are-not-wonderful-just-because-you-are-a-mother/
runs until February 14th, 2021
Lifeline Artist Statment:
My grandmother and great grandmother from the old country were master knitters, lacemakers and embroiderers, practices that had been passed down through the generations spanning hundreds of years in the Sephardic diaspora but which had been interrupted when my mother moved to Canada from Israel where she gave birth to me.
I began the lifeline garment while I was 8 months pregnant, doing my MFA and on the precipice of becoming a mother. The blue shawl was modelled after a shawl that was knit by my grandmother Clara, that I used to put on as a child whenever i was feeling unwell, as it had the magical healing abilities to make you feel better. I was seeking to create a healing ritual/ ceremony for myself that would help me to build connections, on the one hand to some kind of spiritual lineage, and on the other hand to the land/ place where I live as a settler/ descendent of immigrants.
The performance that I created with this garment is modeled after an orthodox Jewish religious ritual act traditionally performed exclusively by men called "wrapping the Tefflin" you can watch You Tube videos of the ritual being performed, but essentially in the ritual, the religious men, wrap leather bands attached to amulets around their arms and head as a way of connecting with God. In my performance, the aim is to connect with the earth, and the life giving properties of the Humber River and Lake Ontario, the two major bodies of water in my city of Toronto, which were just a stone's throw away from the hospital where my daughter was born. I'd been hoping to give birth at an indigenous birthing centre, which is where I saw a painting depicting the Indigenous view of the birthing and nursing process as connected to the life waters of rivers and lakes. Due to complications I wasn't able to give birth at the birthing centre, but had to have c-section surgery.
I wrote and recorded the accompanying audio track on keyboard, and collaborated with my friend and musician Mark Andrade to create an ambient, trance inducing soundtrack to the ceremony. The decision to incorporate sound, was inspired by family narratives of my great-grandmother Julia who used to sing Ladino (ancient Spanish) love songs on the porch while she would knit.
The performance of lifeline, is my creation of a contemporary ceremony that is meant to function as a rite of passage/ preparation for a new way of life after becoming a mother, in which my studio time and my creative time would be cut into, and evolve into new more cyclical repetitive acts which require giving of myself and my time, emotionally and physically.
The Moss Men of Bejar
There is a local legend in Béjar dating back to the 12th century during the reign of King Alfonso VIII of Castile in which local men are said to have camouflaged themselves in moss gathered from the local forests so as to hide their approach to the gates of a Muslim fortress. So the legend goes, under the cover of darkness they waited for the drawbridge to open and then ambushed the guards before taking the town. The guards are said to have retreated in terror after seeing the appearance of the moss-men who they believed were monsters. To this day, there is an annual Corpus Cristi parade in Béjar in which the local townspeople cover themselves in moss and march through the streets of Béjar.
The Moss man parade takes place every June during the Corpus Cristi parade. The locals are said to through flower petals on the Moss men and women as they walk past. I will be in Béjar this June during the parade and I'm hoping to be a participant! The parade takes place during my residency and exhibition Re/Inquisition: Return to the Fortress at El Casino Obrero/ Museo Judio David Melul in Béjar Spain. 
Hopefully by the end of June I will have my own photos of me covered from head to toe in Moss, walking through the streets of my ancestral village. In the meantime, I have begun a series of Moss Woman portraits.
Moss Woman
20" x 16"
oil on panel
2019
$850
(please contact artist to inquire about purchase)
This self portrait from my Aura Portrait series, explores feelings of vulnerability in returning to a land where my ancestors experienced persecution and expulsion. Inspired by the Moss men tradition, I am creating self portraits in which I am protected and camouflaged as I return to Béjar.
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