Julie Held (b. 1958 London, England - Lives London, England)
Julie Held was born in London, the daughter of German-Jewish émigrés who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s; her mother, Gisela Held, was a professional sculptor. Held trained at Camberwell School of Art (1977-81), followed by a post-graduate diploma at the Royal Academy Schools (1982-85). She is the recipient of a number of awards including the Picker Fellowship, Kingston University, where she had her first solo exhibition in 1982, The Brandler Prize in 2002, and her painting Girl with a Cat was purchased by Ben Uri Jewish Artist of the Year Award in 1991. She held a solo show at Ben Uri in 1996, followed by a joint exhibition with Shanti Panchal, Regard and Ritual, in 2007. She has had solo exhibitions in Prague, Leipzig and Hamburg, as well as in London at Eleven Spitalfields Gallery (2014), followed by a joint exhibition with her former tutor Tony Eyton (2017), and a further solo exhibition at the London Jewish Culture Centre (2015). She regularly exhibits at group exhibitions including the Royal Academy summer exhibitions and The Jerwood Drawing Prize and has been shortlisted for the B.P. Portrait Award.
Held is currently a visiting lecturer at the Royal Drawing School in London. She was elected a member of the Royal Watercolour Society in 2003 and is also a member of the London Group, the New English Art Club and the Arborealists. Her work is in UK collections including the Ben Uri Collection; Nuffield College, Oxford University; the Open University; the Ruth Borchard Portrait Collection; and The Women’s Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge University, as well as The Thomas Choir School, Leipzig.
