Julie Lluch is one of the foremost exponents of terracotta in the Philippines today. Her highly personal art finds perfect expression in Philippine indigenous clay to which she refers as a most “sensuous and pleasurable” feminine medium. Her ideologically informed works of sculptured women performing various domestic chores, mostly auto-biographical in origin, are sharp feminist commentary on the circumstances of women’s lives. Her later works deal with spiritual themes, particularly the Christian paradox of death and rebirth, faith and vulnerability as depicted in her praying women series.
At the forefront of the national women’s movement in the area of culture and the arts, Julie helped form the feminist group Katipunan ng Kababaihan para sa Kalayaan (KALAYAAN) together with women writers, activists and intellectuals in 1983. In 1990, she co-founded KASIBULAN with four other woman artists, an organization originally for visual artists and which today claims largest membership of Filipino women artists including writers, theater workers and filmmakers. In 1986, as an active worker for the simultaneous all-women art exhibition in four art galleries in the country. As president of Philippine Woman Artists Collective (PWAC, 1997-1998), she conducted clay sculpture workshops and seminars in Illigan City, General Santos City.
For her excellent work setting high standards in the field of Philippine sculpture and for enhancing women’s position in our society, Julie Lluch has been duly recognized. Among her awards are: Thirteen Artists Award given by CCP, Outstand Citizenship in Art given by City of Iligan (1992), Most Outstanding Woman Artist awarded by Quezon City Government (1995), Sining at Kalinangan Award sa Araw ng Maynila, given by the City of Manila (1997).
Julie has represented the Philippines in important exhibitions abroad such as: the First Asia-Pacific Triennial in Brisbane, Australia; the Third Asian Art Show in Fukuoka, Japan; Asian Modernism in Indonesia, Malaysia, Tokyo; Clay and Fire International Clay Sculpture Exhibition in Korea, and Federation of Asian and Latin American Countries (FEALAC) Show in Manila.
In the recent past, Julie Lluch has been occupied with public sculpture commissions among which are the monuments in bronze of Carlos P. Romulo on UN Avenue, Manila; of Arsenio Lacson, Ninoy Aquino, and Emilio Javier , Plaridel monuments on Roxas Blvd., Manila, commissioned by the city of Manila, and the monuments of Chief Justices Jose Abad-Santos and Cayetano Arellano, commissioned by the Supreme Court of the Philippines on Padre Faura St., Manila., Pres. Manuel L. Quezon monument in Quezon Province and others.
