Julie Heffernan

Julie Heffernan is an American painter whose artwork has been described by writer Rebecca Solnit as “a new kind of history painting” and by The New Yorker as “ironic rococo surrealism with a social-satirical twist.” She uses the term “Self-Portrait” to describe what are extremely subjective takes on a world gone awry. While invoking a sense of the possible in these vividly detailed realms she reflects on environmental, (art) historical, feminist, literary, social, and political subjects.

Heffernan received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking from University of California at Santa Cruz and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at Yale School of Art and Architecture. She is a Professor of Fine Arts at Montclair State University and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Heffernan's graphic novel, Babe in the Woods, or the Art of Getting Lost (Algonguin Press), came out in 2024. She is the founder and editor of the blog Painters on Paintings, an ongoing conversation between artists focusing on the work of another artist.

In 2011, Heffernan was inducted into the National Academy of Design in New York. She is the recipient of numerous grants including a Fulbright-Hayes Grant to Berlin, an NEA, a 2021 NYFA Fellowship and 2017 MacDowell Fellow. Among her other recognitions, Heffernan’s paintings were exhibited in the Reception Room at the Chilean Embassy during the Biden Administration as exemplars of the climate crisis. She was the Commencement Speaker for the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and featured artist at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Recently Heffernan was commissioned by Adam Jones of Tool to contribute artwork for two custom Gibson guitars and by Martin Guitars for a custom design as well. Since 1999, Heffernan has had more than 50 solo exhibitions at museums and other venues across the United States and abroad, most recently at Hirschl & Adler Modern in 2023. Her work is represented in 25 museum and institutional collections.

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