Bio
Julia Zeigler is an Undergraduate student at Ohio University pursuing a BFA in Painting & Drawing as well as a Certificate of Museum Studies and anticipates graduating in Spring 2026.
Raised in southeastern Ohio with a close, matriarchal family, Julia’s upbringing deeply informs both her worldview and her art making. She is a twin and one of three siblings raised by a single mother; and supported collectively by the women in her family. She understands her history through a blend of firsthand experience and inherited stories. This understanding inspires her ongoing exploration of fragmented memory, domestic spaces, generational cycles, and the emotional atmospheres that define a sense of place. Much of her work reconstructs place-based memories that exist only in partial clarity, using layered surfaces, gestural abstraction, and collage to mimic the nonlinear, shifting nature of remembering. Throughout her 4 years of undergrad, Julia’s practice has expanded through formal study in painting & drawing, as well as through a plein air painting course that has significantly influenced her approach to landscape. She now works fluidly between observation and abstraction, breaking apart compositions into gestures, color fields, and layered textures.
Julia has exhibited her work at Ohio University and throughout the region, Including the Undergraduate Juried Exhibition (2024 & 2022), Art Ambassadors Autumn Salon (2022,2023,2024), and a recent Plein Air Pop-Up show, at Ohio University Art Galleries (2025). In 2024, she was awarded the Edwin L. & Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor Scholarship, by Distinguished Professor John Sabraw at Ohio University. The next year, in 2025, Julia was awarded the Distinguished Professor Scholarship once more by John Sabraw at Ohio University. In 2025, she was awarded $1,393 for her thesis exhibition from the Provost Undergraduate Research Fund from the Research and Creative Activity department at OU.
Cirriculum Vitae
Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity Thesis: Between Forgetting and Becoming
HONORS & AWARDS
Provost Undergraduate Research Fund, awarded $1,393 for thesis exhibition, Research and Creative Activity, Ohio University, 2025
Edwin L. & Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor Scholarship, Ohio University, 2024-2025
Edwin L. & Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor Scholarship, Ohio University, 2025-2026
OHIO Art Prize 1st place, Ohio University, 2022
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2026
Folk Magic Exhibition, Love Hope Arts Gallery, Fayetteville, West Virginia
2025
Plein Air Pop-Up, Ohio University Student Gallery, Athens, Ohio
Art Ambassadors Winter Salon, Cube 4 Gallery, Athens, Ohio
Undergraduate Art League Pop-Up Exhibition, Cube 4 Gallery, Athens, Ohio
2024
Ohio University Undergraduate Juried Exhibition, Juror: Miguel Carter-Fisher, Ohio University Art Gallery, Athens, Ohio
Art Ambassadors Fall Salon, Cube 4 Gallery, Athens, Ohio
Art Ambassadors Winter Salon, Cube 4 Gallery, Athens, Ohio
2023
Art Ambassadors Fall Salon, Cube 4 Gallery, Athens, Ohio
Ohio University Foundations Exhibition, Ohio University Art Gallery, Athens, Ohio
Art Ambassadors Winter Salon, Cube 4 Gallery, Athens, Ohio
2022
Ohio University Undergraduate Juried Exhibition, Juror: Noah Riedel, Ohio University Art Gallery, Athens Ohio
2021
State of the Arts: Mentor + Mentee, Ohio University Art Gallery, Athens Ohio
EXHIBITIONS CURATED
Through A New Lens: Annual Museum Studies Exhibition, Kennedy Museum of Art, Athens, Ohio
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2025 — Studio Assistant, True Pigments, Athens OH
2024-2025 — Kennedy Museum of Art Student Worker
2022-2024 — SOA+D Office Assistant
TECHNICAL SKILLS
Painting (oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache), drawing (oil pastel, charcoal, ink), woodshop equipment and hand tools, installation (2D and 3D works), gallery maintenance(patching holes, repainting, scheduling), procreate (digital art), Microsoft (PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, Excel), Google (Slides, Docs, Gmail, Sheets), customer service
Contact Me
Interested in working together? Fill out some info and I will be in touch shortly. Can’t wait to hear from you!