Growing up amongst get-rich-quick schemes and ever-changing miracle cures, my work explores the charged moment of believing and the decisions we make to submit, tolerate or look past. In You’ve got to be really pure, you can’t just make believe. Staples uses references from the 1971 spiritual guide Be Here Now, by guru Ram Daas to explore the authors suggested path to enlightenment and the impossibilities of achieving.

Julia Staples is a Philadelphia based artist, curator and organizer. Working with installation incorporating photography, sculpture, video and performance. Her work explores the intersection of self-help and spirituality, exploring topics related to gender and sexuality. Staples has exhibited in and around Philadelphia as well as in Iceland, Spain, NYC and LA; she has been awarded residencies at Kimmel Nelson Harding, Ox-Bow, The Vermont Studio Center and Polli Talu in Estonia. Her most recent achievements include a public art installation at the Philadelphia Free Library installed at the end of 2017 and a solo exhibition at the Art Association of Harrisburg in 2017. In Philadelphia, she works as an adjunct professor, teaching courses in photography, studio practice, professional development and photo history. Staples holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art and her BFA from Parsons School of Design.