Born in Guernsey, Channel Islands in 1964, Marie Julou (Tina McCallan) studied Fine Art at Portsmouth Polytechnic and went on to receive an M.A. in Painting from the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Her artistic journey then led her to Germany, where she received a DAAD scholarship to study under Gunter Uecker at the Art Academy Dusseldorf from 1994 to 1996.
Although, at her core, dedicated to painting, during her time in Germany she expanded her artistic practice to include installation, performance, and film, resulting in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Mauritius, Dussledorf, London and Leipzig.
She has now come full circle back to a painting practice which picks up threads from work produced 20 years ago. On her degree, she started using the pseudonym Marie Julou (her middle name and mothers maiden name) partly to create a fictional identity and partly to negate the patriarchal custom of taking the fathers name.
She now produces abstract paintings under this name and her current fascination lies in finding a painterly language in which she can respond to abstract expressionism while incorporating her feminist ideals.
She is also the curator of several group shows including, Dirty Pink Valencia, 2021 , Dirty Pink Florence, 2022, Relics of Future’s Past, 2022 and Horror Vacui, 2020. Julou has nurtured her work by travelling as well as living in various countries, including Turkey, France, Germany, and, her current residence, Valencia, Spain.
Julou also has a parallel and continuing practice under her legal name of Tina McCallan where she invites the museum-going public to recreate their own masterpiece in a collaborative painting performance.
She has had considerable success with this project and in 2002, she was commissioned by the National Gallery in London to produce the “Piero di Cosimo” Re-creation project, involving 100 participants. Other notable commissions include institutions like the United Nations Lebanon, the Museum of London, 24 hours in Neukoln, Berlin, the Canakkale Bienalle in Turkey, the Glastonbury Festival, and the Museo de Belles Artes in Valencia, where she has completed a project every year since 2015. Aware of the bias in art history towards male artists, future projects will now only include recreations of female artists. To learn more go to: