|
BIOGRAPHY |
|
Julia Levitina McGeehan was born in Odessa, USSR, in 1981 and immigrated to the United States in 1995. In 2003, she received her Bachelor's of Arts degree magna cum laude in fine arts and philosophy from Georgetown University, where she studied painting under Gerald Wartofsky. While at Georgetown, she also took independent courses in figure drawing and sculpture at the Washington Studio School and worked in terra cotta under Jean Bartoli. She subsequently completed an apprenticeship with Bartoli in stone carving. In 2001-2002 McGeehan studied abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris and attended drawing and sculpture workshops at various Parisian studio schools, including the Atelier Poussin and École du Louvre. In the fall of 2003, McGeehan entered the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (P.A.F.A.) in order to pursue her interest in figurative drawing and sculpture. While at the Academy, she found a mentor in sculptor Gary Weisman, who shared her interest in the sculpture of the Greeks, the Renaissance and Rodin. After three years at P.A.F.A., McGeehan continued her classical education at the Schuylkill Academy of the Fine Arts until the fall of 2007, studying with figurative sculptor Stuart Feldman, a protégé of the late Boris Blai and a student of Evangelos Frudakis. Julia McGeehan creates representational sculptures of figures and animals in terra cotta and bronze. Casting and finishing all of her own bronze work, she is able to exploit the nuances of each process to enhance the end result she envisions. Exhibitions of her work include the Atelier Poussin in Paris (2002), the Philadelphia Sketchclub (2003-04), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (2003-05), Tagliareni-Anderson Fine Art Gallery in Philadelphia (2005-06), Mooreart Gallery in New Jersey (2006), Artists' House Gallery in Philadelphia (2007) and Riverbank Arts Gallery in New Jersey (2007). In 2007, McGeehan presented a solo exhibition of eight bronze sculptures at Artists' House Gallery in Philadelphia, PA. In 2008, she will participate in the 110th Annual Invitational Exhibition of the Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Julia McGeehan's work has earned her various awards and honors including the Metropolitan Museum of Art Medal for Excellence in Fine Arts in New York, NY (1999), the Stimson Prize in Figurative Sculpture at P.A.F.A. (2004), and the Perez and Mary Epstein Prize for Figurative Sculpture at P.A.F.A. (2005). In 2005, she exhibited her prize-winning pieces at the Pennsylvania Academy's of the Fine Arts Annual Student Exhibition, received a National Sculpture Society Academic Scholarship, and was selected to compete in the National Sculpture Competition, where she was awarded the Walter and Michael Lantz prize in figure modeling and Edward Fenno Hoffman prize for striving to uplift the human spirit by means of her art. The following year, McGeehan traveled to Old Lyme, CT, with a traveling stipend from the National Sculpture Society, to participate again in the National Sculpture Competition, where she received the Elisabeth Gordon Chandler award in figure modeling. She is a recent recipient of a bronze portrait commission for a private collection in Paris. Please note that all biographical information
will be found under surname Levitina until 2007 |