Julee Hightower Ryle received a BFA from Pratt Institute in 2002, focusing on painting and sculpture. After graduating Julee worked in New York City for many years as an artist assistant in a prominent sculpture studio and various fine arts work involving ceramics, bronze, metalsmithing, moldmaking, casting, plastics, sculpture fabrication, film sets and smashing things with a forklift. Julee learned to sew and quilt after becoming a mom and then returned to her own painting practice through the lens of mom life: canned meats, pom poms, emotional chickens, broken toys, high emotions, low emotions, salt and pepper shakers, volcanos, fluffy things, blobs, messy conglomerations, portals… Currently Julee paints portraits and tardigrades in dreamscapes involving ancient Roman architecture, baby teeth, cut hair and modern existence. Julee lives in Walla Walla, WA with her husband and 5 children.

CV:

JULEE HIGHTOWER RYLE B. 1980 United States

EDUCATION 2002 Pratt Institute, BFA Painting (Sculpture), Brooklyn, NY 1999 Wenatchee Valley College, AA (Ceramics), Wenatchee, WA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2023 One-Hundred Not-So-Daily Paintings, Stevens Gallery, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA 2021 Plants/ People, Brasserie 4, Walla Walla, WA

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2025 Art Squared, Brainrot Mona Lisa (Best of Show), CAVU Cellars, Walla Walla, WA 2024 Intimacy, Red 225, Nashville, TN 2023 Juried Anniversary Show, Foundry Vineyards, Walla Walla, WA 2022 Painting at Night, Collar Works, Troy, NY 2022 Art Squared, Grannie (Best of Show), CAVU Cellars, Walla Walla, WA 2022 Juried Show, Combine Art Collective, Walla Walla, WA 2002 Three Person Senior Show, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY 2002 Another Two Painter Show, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY 2001 Two Person Show, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

GRANTS 2023 Grants for Artists’s Progress 2022 Dan Dunn Memorial Grant

PERMANENT COLLECTIONS Mokuhanga Project Space, Walla Walla, WA Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA