​Julia Powles is an artist and curator who lives and works on the unceded land of the Wurundjeri.

Embedded within Powles’s work is a desire to understand human relationships. Her work is often formed through an initial connection to language and text (both written and spoken) with a particular interest in slippages, gaps and failures – those  conditions of uncertainty, or moments when the unconscious can emerge. Working with personal and idiosyncratic concepts, Powles uses her work to unite disparate ideas, memories and associations.  

Working with painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, collage and textiles Powles’s recent projects have revolved around the manifestation of ghosts, echoes and sound waves made using materials with intensely personal associations.

In her curatorial practice she has examined the role of the curator through durational participatory projects where she has invited artists to undertake residencies in her house, and employed an artist to work as an artist for one day of the week over a 12 month period. Powles has worked in the museum sector for the last twenty years, as well as an academic at the University of Melbourne and RMIT. She has been the recipient of various awards and prizes including the inaugural Ursula Hoff Scholarship for Art History (The University of Melbourne), Australia Council for the Arts Project Grants, Arts Victoria Project Grants, and City of Melbourne Project Grants.