Julie Durkin Marty makes paintings that map two places at once — the deep sea and outer space — emotional states rendered in light and pigment. Her paintings are built from poured pigment and seawater, pulled across the surface in long sweeps and disrupted by sanding — surfaces that are stratified and fluid, matte and luminous, holding light from within. A recurring arc moves through the work like a breaking wave, a rainbow, a gravitational pull. These paintings translate the climate crisis into hope — Bubblegum Ocean, Marshmallow Sea — with a dark humor that is entirely intentional.

Extending the conversation of Color Field painting inward rather than toward transcendence, her practice is rooted in feminine agency — work that moves into the body, the psyche, the specific experience of living inside the climate crisis. The sea is not only subject but material — seawater enters the paintings directly, the color drawn from living creatures, bioluminescence, and scientific imaging.

Durkin Marty lives and works in Connecticut. She received her BFA from Parsons School of Design and her MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Her work has been exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions at venues including DADA POST, Holland Tunnel, G-Town Arts, 63 Audubon, GBG Gallery, Mulry Fine Art, and CoLAB Arts, and has been featured in the Hartford Art Pages, Artist Magazine, the New York Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Palm Beach Daily News. She is a two-time resident of the Pollinator Platform residency.