In her compositions, Julie Graham captured man-made environments unoccupied by humans, yet shows evidence of their presence. They give center stage to the places themselves: the ways in which juxtapositions of light, form, texture, and color lend an unexpected beauty, an air of mystery, and an absolute quiet to temporarily uninhabited spaces. The less they reveal, the more access they provide to the viewer, allowing him or her to enter into the spaces she captures and navigate them alone.

Graham's work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at venues such as Kingston Gallery in Boston, MA, where she is represented, and has been included in group exhibitions at Ruth Bachofner Gallery in Los Angeles, CA, and Frederick Taylor Gallery in New York, NY, among others. In 2007, her work was featured at the Kinkead Contemporary Gallery booth at the Aqua Art Miami art fair. Graham was on the painting faculty at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and taught at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI, and the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, as well as at numerous international venues. The artist passed away in 2018.