Julia Barzizza
(she/they)
Julia Barzizza is an American painter, mosaic artist, handbuilder and visual arts researcher. She is a Ph.D. student at UC Davis, under advisory by Darnel Degand and Jennifer Higgs. Julia holds a BFA from California College of the Arts (CCA) and an MA in Sociology from New Mexico State University (NMSU). Her research interests include visual art at the intersection of civic engagement, race, nationality, color, culture and ethnicity.
Julia was born in Garden Grove, California and lives in San Francisco. Her illustrations have been published in 7×7 (Art Direction by Chloé Hennen), The Bold Italic (Keith Spencer), Club Chicxulub (Matt Carney), Food52 (Mayukh Sen and Sarah Jampel) and sPARKLE & bLINK (Evan Karp).
Julia began life drawing as a middle schooler in a Wednesday evening class at Orange County High School of the Arts. City College of San Francisco Professors Johnetta Gladys Richards, sculptor John Whitehead, and Nicole Wise ignited Julia’s lifework toward critical race pedagogy, visual discernment and socially engaged visual arts education. Julia studied art under Nashormeh Lindo, Nancy Mizuno Elliott, Sharon Pearson, and Diana Scott at City College, and with Bob Ciano, Mark Eanes, Robert Hunt, Caitlin Kuhwald, Adam McCauley and Michael Wertz at CCA. She learned to paint murals and fabricate large-scale mosaic under guidance by Susan Cervantes and Yukako Ezoe at Precita Eyes Muralists Association. Julia is learning the transliteration of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali taught by Kate Holcombe, student and longtime friend of T.K.V. Desikachar and Menaka Desikachar.
Publications
Barzizza, Julia. April 2026. “Book Review of Immigration: how the past shapes the present by Nancy Foner.” Ethnic and Racial Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2026.2672155.
Barzizza, Julia. February 2026. “California’s high schools should be teaching ethnic studies courses but aren’t”. CalMatters. Retrieved February 27, 2026.
Barzizza, Julia. December 2025. “Book Review of Essays on Art and Science by Eric R. Kandel.” Journal of Visual Culture. https://doi.org/10.1177/147041292513405.
Barzizza, Julia. 2024. “Book Review of Toxic Water, Toxic System: Environmental Racism and Michigan’s Water War by Michael Mascarenhas.”Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. https://doi.org/10.1177/23326492241268736.
press & interviews
Hofstadter, Krisztian. July 14, 2025. “Biofeedback Art Journey of Julia Barzizza.” Biofeedback Art Research. Retrieved July 14, 2025.
Haupt, Angela. January 17, 2025. “11 Things to Do on Inauguration Day That Are Great for Your Mental Health.” TIME. Retrieved January 20, 2025.
Parker, Lydia. January 2, 2025. “Woman’s theory on the color pink sparks viral debate.” Newsweek. Retrieved January 2, 2025
City of Brisbane CA. October 28, 2021. “Friends of Brisbane Library Interview with Precita Eyes Muralists.” Internet Archive.
