Material Girl: the psychedelic, day-glo designs of art star Julia Dault
The Toronto-born mixed-media marvel Julia Dault is New York’s latest avant-garde phenomenon. Dault had her big break in 2012, when her work was shown as part of the New Museum’s Triennial. The art world was so bewitched by her dizzying designs that gallerists jockeyed to represent her and the Guggenheim held a dinner in her honour. Among the collectors who now own her work are the fashion mogul Joe Mimran, Wall Street bigwig J. Tomilson Hill and the British millionaire Charles Saatchi.
For her prints, Dault uses scraps of pleather, denim and sequined velour. She covers the fabric in acrylic paint, then scrapes away at the surfaces using rubber combs, doorknobs and squeegees, revealing submerged patterns. This month, the Power Plant mounts Dault’s first solo museum show, which includes a survey of her effervescent, day-glo paintings and textiles. The show also features two specially commissioned pieces made of Formica and Plexiglas. Dault builds each one on-site at the gallery, like sculptural performance art—they bend and shine, radiating a space-age lustre. Here, a few of Dault’s greatest hits.
ART Color Me Badd By Julia Dault The Power Plant Sept. 20 to Jan. 4
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Simon Lewsen is a feature writer and a regular contributor to Toronto Life, Maclean’s, the Walrus, Report on Business, and the Toronto Star. He writes the monthly City Beat column on art and architecture for Designlines, and he teaches writing at the University of Toronto.
