Julie Lluch

Julie Lluch is one of the foremost exponents of terracotta in the Philippines today. Her highly personal art finds perfect expression in Philippine indigenous clay to which she refers as a most “sensuous and pleasurable” feminine medium. Her ideologically informed works of sculptured women performing various domestic chores, mostly auto-biographical in origin, are sharp feminist commentary on the circumstances of women’s lives. Her later works deal with spiritual themes, particularly the Christian paradox of death and rebirth, faith and vulnerability as depicted in her praying women series.

At the forefront of the national women’s movement in the area of culture and the arts, Julie helped form the feminist group Katipunan ng Kababaihan para sa Kalayaan (KALAYAAN) together with women writers, activists and intellectuals in 1983. In 1990, she co-founded KASIBULAN with four other woman artists, an organization originally for visual artists and which today claims largest membership of Filipino women artists including writers, theater workers and filmmakers. In 1986, as an active worker for the simultaneous all-women art exhibition in four art galleries in the country. As president of Philippine Woman Artists Collective (PWAC, 1997-1998), she conducted clay sculpture workshops and seminars in Illigan City, General Santos City.

“It is the seat of the innermost thoughts and intents of the mind and soul. While the holy book says it is desperately deceitful, it is also where your treasure is. The heart is a timeless symbol and I do not tire of making hearts again and again and again….”