Baker Artist Portfolios

Julie Wills is an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture, installation, drawing, and text. Her works have been exhibited in museums and galleries across the United States, including an upcoming solo exhibition at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, MD (2026). Recent solo exhibitions include the Greenly Gallery at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania; Gettysburg College; VisArts; C for Courtside; and MoCA Arlington as well as two-person exhibitions at Lyndon House Arts Centerand Whittier College. In 2021, she was selected to create an exhibition in partnership with the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) at Plain Sight in Washington, DC, presented by the Embassy of Sweden.

Wills is a recipient of multiple awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, including a Professional Development award, Creativity Grant, and Individual Artist Award, as well as a Jumpstart Award from Colorado Creative Industries. She has been awarded numerous residencies and fellowships, including a funded residency with bursary at Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte in Biella, Italy; KORDON (Estonia); the Edwards Fellowship at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; Marble House Project; Cill Rialaig (Ireland); Arteles (Finland); Hambidge; the Denbo Fellowship at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center; Jentel; PLAYA; and Anderson Ranch.

Originally from Colorado, Wills is based in Baltimore, MD and is an Associate Professor of Studio Art at Washington College in Chestertown, MD.

Artist Statement:

I am an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture and installation, with a focus on found materials— especially those used in the building trades. My work references architecture, landscape, and the night sky, exploring what is visible and what is hidden, the structures we build and dismantle, and the social and psychological frameworks that shape our lives.

My material choices reflect what I find lying around me. Growing up, my parents ran a concrete business, and I was raised amid gravel piles, swap meets at the dog track, pawn shops, and auto salvage lots. Later, I married a homebuilder and spent my days on construction jobsites or unloading materials at the dump. I notice scraps on the ground because I have spent my life stepping over things that are half-submerged. These materials, marked by use, damage, and repair, have become the foundation of my work.

Many of my works incorporate language, and I arrange text as if it too were a physical material. When words are placed in three-dimensional space, they can be read in any order and their meaning is no longer fixed. Like the other materials I choose, language is both solid and fleeting, as if it might rearrange itself at any moment. I am interested in what language can and cannot do, what it conveys and what it limits. In recent work, I have been particularly drawn to how language might function as a tool of resistance, improvisation, and collective intervention.