Julia Callis

Julia Callis is a Detroit native conjuring mythical landscapes that meld figures from medieval manuscripts, fairytales, and merry-go-rounds with an impromptu impression of the vastness of contemporary Detroit. The world of her paintings is filled with charming non sequiturs and mystery. While her work is narrative, their subjects remain just out of reach, poetic and suggestive. Floating against muted rose and greens, we find escaped pheasants, singing radishes, and truncated merry-go-round horses bobbing in and out of the frame. Callis creates a painted world poised between abstraction—her objects float unmoored in pleasant, unarticulated spaces—and surreal figuration. Callis convinces us to embrace her fictional worlds completely.