About the Artist
Joanne Fox has a BFA from the School of the Art Institute Of Chicago, an MA in Art and Anthropology from Goddard College in Vermont and four years of continuing studies in Critical Theory at University of California Berkeley. She has worked in diverse media including fiber, books, agitprop and painting on canvas. She has shown in galleries across the United States, including Orange County Museum of Art, Pyramid Atlantic in Washington DC, Boulder Art Gallery, Victoria Bryce Gallery in Scottsdale and SLATE in Oakland CA. Fox’s work is in numerous private and corporate collections, including those of Kaiser Hospital, Camino Alto Medical Group, New York Public Library, the Maryland Art Institute and Nokia Corporation.
Artist Statement
I have been painting and making art for sixty-six years. I began at age thirteen, when I made the proclamation to some elm trees that “I am an artist.” Those trees are gone now, but I am still at my easel painting, drawing, and creating.
I first fell in love with Abstract Expressionism as an art student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. My teachers said that I walked in Joan Mitchells’ shoes. The Art Institute had recently acquired DeKooning’s Excavation, and as I walked past it each day on my way to class, I stopped and saw something new–the abstract genre was all about showing things like emotion, integrity, and unity. These principles informed my work over the next years, as I explored life drawing, sculpture, fibre art, and abstract painting.
Fifty-seven years later, in 2017, my studio burned to the ground with sixty-one years of artwork and art materials inside. It took three years to rebuild. During this time, I worked outdoors drawing with burnt wood from the surrounding trees on an improvised easel. Transmuting the devastation of the fire into something creative and positive was immensely healing for me.
When I moved into my rebuilt studio in 2020, I began working on my geologic series. These paintings explore the idea of nature-built structures and touch on the over-arching themes of the past thirty years that deal with the tension between order and chaos in a man-made world. Here I explore the solid qualities of the natural world and the atomization of information produced by technology.
In the end, I have come full-circle to make works that are peaceful and joyous, that aim toward unity and integrity, that lift the spirit, and all the while, express something about our time.
Language, Image, Gesture
“It is hard not to be immediately struck by Fox’s sensual, almost decadent application of paint in broad, lush brushstrokes. Even in the neutral pieces, the pleasure of working with the material is evident in the soft and rhythmic gestures and bold color choices. This essentially expressionist handling evokes movement and flow, accident and emotion. Yet each piece is built around a solid architecture of angular forms, which firmly anchor the compositions.”
— Director, SLATE contemporary gallery
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Slate Contemporary - OAKLAND ART MURMUR, 10.05.12, Reported by Brandi Lee for Artbusiness.com
“There is an urgency to Joanne Fox's paint application that is nicely balanced by the subtleties in the texture which combine to invite the viewer in. The aggressive architectural lines suggest urban environment, and one can almost hear the sirens, horns and construction equipment while standing in front of her work.”
Joanne Fox in front of her work at Slate Contemporary Gallery (photo: Brandi Lee)