Aldrich Projects | Julia Bland: Woven in the Reeds is the artist’s first solo museum presentation, debuting a monumental tapestry composed of canvas, ropes, linen nets, and fabrics that are dyed, woven, braided, tied, and sewn by hand.
Bland grew up in Palo Alto, California, in the shadow of the counterculture movement of the 1960s–70s, and in the nascent stages of technological utopianism. Raised by parents with different religious backgrounds—her mother is Jewish, and her father is a Presbyterian minister—Bland’s upbringing was marked by a blend of spiritual influences. In 2008, she was awarded a fellowship to work in Morocco, where she lived on and off for several years. During this time, she studied Sufism and immersed herself in the country’s rich customs, materials, and craftsmanship.
Informed by these personal experiences, Bland’s textiles reflect a synthesis of visual cultures across time and place. Her work blends the tie-dyed, kaleidoscopic imagery of psychedelia with sacred Islamic geometry and Judeo-Christian symbols. Bland’s meticulous layering, diverse materials, and intricate fiber techniques result in compositions that exude rhythmic intensity and devotional energy, evoking the mystical abstractions of transcendentalist painters like Hilma af Klint and Emma Kunz.
The confluence of openwork netting and solid patches of material coalesce at certain points to form distinct shapes while dissolving into others, depending on the viewer’s perception. In this way, Bland references the Shifting Gestalt Effect, an optical phenomenon that emphasizes the whole of patterns and objects over their individual elements. One image that may emerge is the “priestly hands,” a powerful religious symbol from ancient Judeo-Christian traditions representing divine protection. The work’s title, Woven in the Reeds, refers both to Judaism, where reeds are valued for their flexibility and strength and used for writing the Torah, and to Sufism, where—as the artist explains—“The song of the reed flute laments its separation from the reed bed, and is a frequent metaphor for the longing for God.”
Julia Bland was born in 1986 in Palo Alto, California, and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Julia Bland: Woven in the Reeds is organized by Caitlin Monachino, Curatorial and Publications Manager, as part of Aldrich Projects, a quarterly series that features one work or a focused body of work by a singular artist on the Museum’s campus.
Julia Bland (b. 1986, Palo Alto, CA) received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MDA from The Yale School of Art. She has been an artist in residence at The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Lighthouse Works, The Sharpe-Walentas Space Program, and The Shandaken Project: Storm King. She has received awards including The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, The Milton and Sally Avery Fellowship from Yaddo, The Carol Schlosberg Memorial Prize, NYFA/NYSCA Fellowship in Craft/Sculpture, The Florence Leif Award for Excellence in Painting, and the Natasha and Jacques Gelman Travel Fellowship. Recent solo exhibitions include Rivers on the Inside, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY; Embers, Maya Frodeman Gallery, Jackson Hole, WY; Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, IL; The Lighthouse Works, Fisher’s Island, NY; Helena Anrather, New York, NY; and On Stellar Rays, New York, NY. Recent group exhibitions include The Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY; Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY; The Swedish Institute in Paris, France; The Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY; John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI; Chambers Fine Art, Beijing, China; and Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY. Bland lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Join us for this in-person gallery tour of highlighted works from our current exhibitions reserved specifically for senior adults ages 60 and above!
Top image: Julia Bland: Woven in the Reeds (detail), 2025, Courtesy of the artist and Derek Eller Gallery, New York. Photo: Kaiya McCormick
