JULIA LAMBRIGHT, Painter

Born and raised in the Soviet Union, Julia Lambright earned a BFA and MFA with distinction from the University of New Mexico. Trained as an oil painter, she returned to Russia to study icon painting, learning to apply and mix her own egg tempera paint, apply gold leaf, and create sacred imagery. She applied this knowledge to other subjects, including portraiture, floral imagery, and the visual language of seventeenth-century icons to examine memory, trauma, and joy, exploring how the brain stores but also alters . Over time, her interest in material processes led her to soft pastel, a medium that supports experimentation and direct mark-making. Through color, surface, and gesture, Lambright explores sensation, perception, and personal experience while leaving space for multiple interpretations. She lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico.