I am Julia Giunta, a French actress and painter based in London. I studied acting and I have
practiced painting since early childhood.
I grew up dreaming of being on stage and reciting poetry. When I graduated from high
school, I briefly thought of studying scenography. I have always been interested in the
notions of space, boundaries, and emotions. But I was more drawn to being an actress and
to embodying the words of a script – giving an interpretation with my voice, my
movements, and being someone else. Acting seemed like a way of simultaneously being
myself and another. Therefore, I later moved to Paris, and then to London, to study it.
However, painting has always remained a part of my life. I used to scribble on all my
notebooks. Sometimes, words felt like they were not enough.
When I moved to the UK, I didn’t really have any notions of English, and I had everything to
learn. It made it harder to make new friends. But something else emerged from this
incapacity, and my fear became my strength. My imagination overwhelmed me, and I was
full of something that I needed to let out somewhere. I tend to be a little eccentric, and my
emotions control me more than I can control them. Blank canvas became the ideal outlets.
I have always been fascinated by the notion of infinity. The sky is my main source of
inspiration, and I love daydreaming. I also listen to a lot of jazz, punk, rock, French and
American rap, Cuban or classical music. Music drives me and accompanies me through my
painting time.
But because my work is essentially political, what I want to bring to the front stage is what
our society wants to keep hidden (pollution, depression, mental health issues). Through my
painting, I am talking about the world which surrounds us, and I am showing what is
supposed to remain covered, because it is “ugly”. What I am looking for is to transform the
ugly into the beautiful, so that it is not scary anymore.
My work is abstract, which allows the public to create their own interpretations. My
paintings all have an explicit title, which gives away the reason for their creation. But before
reading it, the viewers find themselves alone in front of the canvas and go through their
own experience.
I make my art because I cannot translate, and I cannot speak. I found my own freedom
through giving shape to thoughts, and colours to shadows.
