Julia Galloway

Julia Galloway (born 1966) is a Montana-based studio potter and professor of ceramics at the University of Montana-Missoula.

Early life and education Julia Galloway was raised in Boston, Massachusetts and started throwing pots in high school, buying her first wheel with babysitting money. She kept her wheel in her bedroom and carried her pots to school in a shoe box to be fired. She obtained MFA at the University of Colorado at Boulder and BFA at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.

Work description Most of her objects are made by combining wheel-thrown and hand-built elements "to expose the sculptural nature of pottery, and the seductive nature of porcelain". She primarily fires her objects in a kiln, for its skin surface qualities and allowing for layering of decoration. Their forms are somewhat "exaggerated, their surface bold, colorful, complex, and often, challenging".

Galloway's work is intended to be functional, yet also beautiful. To Galloway, beauty is as valid as function, and she looks for making pottery that is "joyous to use and decorates" living spaces with "character and elegance". Joining forms together, she presents them as pairs, groups or stacks. Her pairs are mirrors of each other or nestling bedmates. Her cream and sugar "beds", reference the domestic. "The Art of Contemporary Pottery" by Kevin Hulch, Craft in America: Celebrating Two Centuries of Artist and Objects, and The Ceramic Continuum, Archie Bray Foundation.

Community engagement and service Julia Galloway is renowned for her call for education and promotion of a medium.

National Council for the Education of Ceramic Arts (NCECA), 2017-2020, Director at Large Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, 2010–present Board of Directors, Helena, MT Montana Clay –serves to gather information about ceramics in Montana.

Awards and honors 2023 Ceramics Monthly, Artist of the Year 2023 NCECA, Fellow of the Council 2018 United States Artist, $50,000 Unrestricted Fellowship