JULIA ROMMEL

Julia Rommel was born in Salisbury, Maryland in 1980. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. 

RB: Tell me more about what "unfussy" painting means to you.

JR: I am constantly battling to resist my innate obsessiveness. The small, monochromatic paintings I started making in 2010 came by total accident; I was preparing surfaces with a black ground and stretching them for some other, preconveived purpose. But I realized that some of them were finished paintings without needing another touch. Embracing them in all of their default unfussiness was crucial. I've been searching for similar suprises to thwart my own hand ever since. I set myself up for these by assigning processes in which a lot of the mark-making becomes out of my control– it happens as I fold the linen, hide parts of a painting behind the stretcher bars, let the physical structure do the work. Foms and lines appear that are more interesting to me and much looser than ones I would have consciously laid down. If I catch myself tinkering with details too much, I'm pretty sure I'm killing the paintings energy. As soon as things start to feel too controlled, I try to throw the painting back into the unknown, usually by re-stretching it and covering all sides with paint. 

Julia Rommel in conversation with Rebecca Bengal, December 2020

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