Discipline: Visual Art – drawing, Visual Art – painting

Joan Linder

Discipline: Visual Art – drawing, Visual Art – painting
Region: Buffalo, NY
MacDowell Fellowships: 2004, 2016, 2022

In culture hyper-saturated by electronic imagery I use the traditional materials of a quill pen and a bottle of ink to create large-scale images that persist in exploring and claiming the sub-technological process of observation and mark making. In my recent work I am creating life size representation of figures and objects. There is a vital relationship that arises between the observer and the observed on a scale of one to one. The sleight or sloppiness of hand creates an awkward and intimate surface which is compounded by the definitive and energized process of cross hatching.

My subjects include the banality of mass-produced domestic artifacts; the politics of war; sexual identity and power; and the beauty disclosed in the close scrutiny of natural and man-made structures. This diversity of subject matter is a critical element in my attempt to express the complexity and variety of contemporary life.

At MacDowell last, she worked on several drawing projects including "prime," a series of recreated Amazon Prime boxes; "when? now," watercolor paintings exploring oral histories; "covid flowers," while quarantining in Alexander Studio; and research and drawings for "arsenal of democracy," an ongoing conceptual landscape drawing project. Linder's permanent commission for Public Art for Public Schools, NYC was unveiled in 2021.

Made at MacDowell

Fellow Works Supported by MacDowell

Prime (Exhibition)

Fulfillment (Exhibition)

Studios

Alexander

Joan Linder worked in the Alexander studio.

Originally designed to be a visual art gallery, this facility was built in memory of the late John White Alexander (1856-1915) and funded by Elizabeth Alexander and their son James. John White Alexander was highly regarded as a portrait painter and, in the early part of the 20th century, served…

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