Julia Wachtel is a contemporary American painter. Wachtel's early work included mixed media installation, now primarily working as a painter. In the 1980s, Wachtel was represented by the seminal East Village gallery, Gallery Nature Morte, and is often associated with The Pictures Generation artist Wachtel attended Middlebury College where she earned a B.A. She spent one year at The School of Visual Arts in New York City, studying with Vito Acconci, Joseph Kosuth, Joan Jonas, amongst others. She then studied at the Whitney Independent Study Program. Wachtel was the production manager of the UK edition of Vanity Fair for ten years.