Julie Ault
Artist, curator, and writer Julie Ault earned a BA in art history and political science from Hunter College in 1995. Ault arrived in New York City from Winthrop, Maine, in 1976, after finishing her high school diploma by taking classes at the nearby University of Maine. It was in the art department on the university campus that she met and became friends with art student Tim Rollins. Ault was a co-founder and member of the pioneering art collective Group Material from 1979 to 1996, along with the artists Tim Rollins, Doug Ashford, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres, among others. The group aimed to challenge traditional notions of art and engage with social and political issues by using collaborative exhibitions as a strategy to support cultural activism. These exhibitions sought to address pressing social concerns, and brought attention to marginalized voices and issues. One of Group Material’s most well-known exhibitions was titled “AIDS Timeline” (1989). The exhibition provided a comprehensive visual and textual history of the AIDS crisis, highlighting the social, political, and cultural responses to the epidemic. It aimed to raise awareness, challenge stigma, and promote understanding and empathy.
Ault returned to Hunter in 2014 to teach as a Judith Zabar Visiting Artist, a program which brings internationally recognized artists to work directly with students in Hunter’s MFA program. In 2018 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, and Hunter College President Jennifer J. Raab lauded Ault’s award, saying, “Julie Ault is an exceptionally versatile artist whose work transcends conventional boundaries to encompass creation, curation, and scholarship. It is no surprise that her extraordinary talents were recognized by the MacArthur Foundation, and we congratulate her on this well-deserved honor.”
Ault’s art practice includes her work as a curator, educator, and writer. She has organized exhibitions for Artists Space in New York, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Ault has also taught at various institutions, including UCLA, Portland State University, the Rhode Island College of Design, the Cooper Union, California College of the Arts, and the Whitney Independent Study Program. Her published works include, Alternative Art New York, 1965–1985 (2002), Show and Tell: A Chronicle of Group Material (2010), Two Cabins by James Benning (2011), and In Part: Writings by Julie Ault (2017). Ault's work has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1994 and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 1999. In 2015, she was awarded a Creative Capital /Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for her writing.