Julia deVille is a New Zealand-born artist, jeweller and taxidermist, who only uses subjects in her taxidermy that have died of natural causes. She lives and works in Australia.

Julia deVille
Born
Wellington, New Zealand
EducationAdvanced Diploma in Gold and Silversmithing, North Melbourne Institute of TAFE
Occupations
  • Artist
  • jeweller
Websitewww.juliadeville.com

Early life and education

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Julia deVille was born in Wellington, New Zealand.[1] She studied fashion for one year at Massey University and then moved to Melbourne in 2001 to study shoe making/design at RMIT. DeVille enrolled in two short jewellery courses in late 2002, at the same time she met her taxidermy mentor and started learning the craft of taxidermy.[2][3]

She enrolled in the Advanced Diploma in Gold and Silversmithing from 2003 to 2004.[4]

Career

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DeVille only uses subjects in her taxidermy that have died of natural causes.[5] She is an advocate for animal rights, and began including taxidermy in her art work in 2002,[6] combining it with her jewellery making practice to produce small sculptures and installations. DeVille’s interest in memento mori traditions of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries and Victorian mourning jewellery inform her wearable pieces.[7]

Awards

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  • 2017: Winner, Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, Sidney Myer Fund & The Myer Foundation
  • 2016: Winner, Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize, with Neapolitan Bonbonaparte[8]
  • 2016: Finalist, Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, Deakin University Art Gallery, Melbourne.
  • 2015: Finalist, Kennedy Prize, Kennedy Arts Foundation, Adelaide. Finalist, National Self-Portrait Prize, UQ Art Museum, Brisbane. Finalist, Gold Coast Art Prize, Gold Coast City Gallery, Queensland. Finalist, Manning Art Prize, Manning Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales. Finalist, Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Sydney. Finalist, Victorian Craft Award, Craft Victoria, Melbourne
  • 2014: Winner, Scope Galleries Award, Victoria
  • 2013: Winner, Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Sydney. Winner, Vermont Award, Wallace Art Awards. Finalist, City of Hobart Art Prize, Hobart. Finalist, Wilson Art Award, New South Wales
  • 2012: Winner, City of Hobart Art Prize, Hobart
  • 2011: Viewer’s Choice Winner, Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Sydney

Selected solo exhibitions

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Selected group exhibitions

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'Actaeon' (taxidermy fawn with chainmail saddle, sparrow wings, smoky quartz and silver reins and harness and sterling silver stirrups) made by Julia deVille for her 2010 exhibition 'Night's Plutonian Shore' at Sophie Gannon Gallery - Melbourne
  • 2016: Lorne Sculpture Biennale, Lorne Foreshore, Victoria.
  • 2015: Fantastic Worlds, Rockhampton Art Gallery, Queensland. Return to Hanging Rock, Mulberry Hill, Victoria. Kennedy Prize, Kennedy Arts Foundation, Adelaide. National Self-Portrait Prize, UQ Art Museum, Brisbane. Gold Coast Art Prize, Gold Coast City Gallery, Queensland. Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Woollahra Council Chambers, Sydney. Manning Art Prize, Manning Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales. Storm in a Teacup, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria. Victorian Craft Award, Craft Victoria, Melbourne.
  • 2014: Phantasmagoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, dark heart: Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, Adelaide. Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne. Scope Galleries Art Award, Scope Galleries, Victoria. Domestic Bliss, Deakin University Art Gallery, Melbourne.
  • 2013: Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Contemporary Voices, The Fine Art Society, London. Jan Murphy Gallery, Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Sydney. Sophie Gannon Gallery, Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Sydney. Diorama, Woolongong City Gallery, Victoria. Second Nature, PM Gallery & House, London. Wonderworks, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong.
  • 2012: Small Works, Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane. Theatre of the World, Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Hobart. Unexpected Pleasures, Design Museum, London.
  • 2011: Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor, Gallery Artisan, Brisbane. Lugosi’s Children, Objectspace, Auckland. Wattle: Australian Contemporary Art, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong.

Bibliography

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  • 2016: Stephen Crafti, More is more at the home of artist Julia deVille, Australian Financial Review, 5 September Isabelle Lane, Explore Melbourne’s best by-appointment-only business, The Weekly Review, 15 July Kasumi Borczyck, Death and holograms: inside the world of Julia deVille, i-D Magazine, 27 June Julia deVille wins Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize, ABC News, 9 June Debbie Cuthbertson, Julia deVille wins Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize with taxidermy chicks, The Age, 9 June Iona Nelson, Julia deVille, This Wild Song, June.
  • 2015: Stephen Crafti, Go and get stuffed, The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 April Pip Coates, Jewellery from Chopard, Piaget and contemporary artists, Australian Financial Review, August Carrie McCarthy, Beautiful Mourning, Cultural Flanerie, 27 July Karla Dondio, The art of preservation, The Sydney Morning Herald, 28–29 November
  • 2014: Elfy Scott, Future of fashion Julia deVille: “Fashion is transient and hollow”, Catalogue Magazine Katie Spain, Vegan, animal lover…and taxidermist: Meet Julia deVille, The Advertiser, 1 March Nicholas Forest, Interview: Julia deVille and the Art of Death, Blouin Art Info Australia, 18 February
  • 2013: Exhibition catalogue for Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria Nicholas Estrada, New Earrings, Thames & Hudson Taxidermy, Thames & Hudson selected publications (cont) 2013 Exhibition catalogue for Wonderworks, The Cat Street Gallery Matthew Westwood, Still life in death, The Australian, 3 December Under 5K, Australian Art Collector, July/September Chicken little, Australian Financial Review, July Belle Australia, April/May
  • 2012–13: Jewel Book, International Annual of Contemporary Jewel Art, Stichting Kunstboek
  • 2012: Exhibition catalogue for Unexpected Pleasures: The Art and Design of Contemporary Jewellery, Design Museum London & National Gallery of Victoria The New Jewellers, Thames & Hudson Lisa Morgan, Design Behind Desire, Faramehmedia Marthe Le Van, Push Jewellery, Lark Crafts Metalsmith Magazine, volume 32, no. 4 Culture – Melbourne Art Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, August Suzanne Carbone, Dead animals on trays cop a serve, The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 July Art to die for, Her Magazine, June/July The one and only, The Age, 28 April
  • 2011: Nicholas Estrada, New Rings, Thames & Hudson Exhibition catalogue for Wattle: Australian Contemporary Art, The Cat Street Gallery Exhibition catalogue for Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor, Artisan Julia deVille and the luxury of imagination, Neue Luxury Andrew Taylor, It’s a dying art but the deVille’s in the detail, The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 November Black Swan, Vogue Australia, August Deer Life, Vogue Living, May/June
  • 2010: Museum of Mortality, Habitus, no. 7
  • 2009: Dead Modern, Urbis, no. 49 Julia deVille, Artist Profile, July Stuff it, it’s Art, Art World, no. 9, June/July
  • 2008: Exhibition catalogue for Just Must, Arnoldsche Art Publications Asensio Paco, Bijoux: Illustration et Design, Maomao Publications
  • 2007: Julia deVille, Dumbo Feather, no. 12 2006 New Directions In Jewellery 2, Black Dog Publishing Jan Phyland, Handmade in Melbourne, Geoff Slattery Publishing
  • 2006: Viviane Stappmanns & Ewan McEoin, The Melbourne Design Guide, Lab 3000 Primavera, Sunday Arts ABC, 29 October The Players – Class of 2006, Harper’s Bazaar, June/July The Abattoir, Black Magazine, March/April/May Design stars on the rise, W Jewellery, January/February/March
  • 2005: Julia deVille, Object Magazine, no. 48.
    • To Die For, Oyster Magazine, no. 61. December ABC Radio, The Arts Show.
    • 11 December, Death Becomes her Art Specialty, The Melbourne Leader.
    • 7 December TV One National News New Zealand.
    • 20 July Dead Gorgeous Jewellery, The Age.
    • 10 May Memento Mori, Pulp Magazine, no. 44
    • April/May. Immaculate Collections, The Herald Sun, 13 March.
  • 2003: Stuff the mice, Vice Magazine, volume 1, no. 7.

Collections

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References

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  1. ^ "More is more at the home of artist Julia deVille". Australian Financial Review. 5 September 2016. Archived from the original on 19 November 2020. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  2. ^ Purssey, Richard (31 August 2015). "Exclusive Interview | Julia deVille - The Morality of Death". Beautiful Bizarre Magazine. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  3. ^ Julia deVille (interviewee), Robert Nelson (interviewer) (5 April 2011). Julia deVille eps-1 (YouTube video). artinfo.com.au. Retrieved 26 November 2018 – via YouTube.
  4. ^ Bryan, Kate; Cassidy, Geoffrey (2013). Australia Contemporary Voices (PDF). The Fine Art Society Contemporary. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-907052-34-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 November 2018. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  5. ^ Leckert, Oriana (27 December 2018). "Inside the Eccentric World of Ethical Taxidermy Art". Artsy.net. Artsy. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  6. ^ Dondio, Karla (22 November 2015). "Taxidermist Julia deVille loves animals". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  7. ^ "Beyond taxidermy: Kate Clark & Julia deVille - RMIT Gallery". RMIT Gallery (Press release). Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  8. ^ Grishin, Sasha (28 September 2016). "Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize 2016 disappoints". Sydney Morning Herald.
  9. ^ "Julia deVille | Jan Murphy Gallery". janmurphygallery.com.au. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  10. ^ "Julia deVille | Jan Murphy Gallery". janmurphygallery.com.au. Retrieved 13 October 2018. [verification needed]
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