Joan Harmon | About

Biography

Joan Harmon works in ceramics, installation, sculpture and drawing. Most recently she has been awarded an Artist Residency near Naples, Italy in July, 2019 from Kultursciok Arts Collective and an honorarium from Black Rock Arts, Burning Man, 2017 where she created three large scale sound sculptures. In 2015 she was awarded a six week Fellowship from the Creative Glass Center of America and has received numerous other International and National awards.

Harmon earned her Bachelors degree from the California College of Art and a Masters degree in Drawing and Sculpture from Rutgers University. Harmon’s work has recently been shown at the Epperson Gallery of Ceramic Arts, the Loveland Museum Gallery, Richmond Art Center, the Lewis Art Gallery, Millsaps College, and at the Governors Island Art Fair, NYC, among others.

She currently teaches at the City University of New York and is an Adjunct Instructor and Art Director in maskmaking and large scale puppetry at NYU, Florence, Italy.

Statement

I work with hybridity, seeking to capture transformations that occur when two unrelated forms combine and produce something new. In sculpture, as in poetry, the function of the real and the unreal are made to cooperate, creating a new reality. The framework of these liminal spaces offers unique interpretations of the human experience and our relationship with nature.
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My work is tied to the landscape, as a concept and a physicality. Growing up on a farm in North Dakota is deeply influential to the core roots of my artwork. The sharp geometric lines of the flat farmland of the great plains left me yearning for curvilinear forms and otherworldly creations. These biomorphic and anthropomorphic forms continue to realize themselves in my practice.
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Earth, fire, and water are essential to my process. These natural elements inform my choice of the medium, the matrix, and the imagery chosen for each series. I work with diverse materials like clay, fire, glass, and charcoal, often incorporating light and sound to create visceral, sensory experiences that are at once universal and intimate. They rely upon the intangible qualities of our human experience like memory, dream, and connection.
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My work ranges from object-making to experiential in scale and is tied to our bodies and the earth. The hybrid forms I create are explorations of the connectivity and relationships between history, science, and humanity. The time depth of human existence and the prescient human need to create symbols are themes that are often incorporated into the work. These ideas emerge as vessels, feminine archetypes, fragmented manmade objects, and interior spaces that are disrupted and/or infiltrated by the landscape.

Curriculum Vitae

Awards and Grants

Artist Residency, Kultursciok Arts Collective, Domicella, Italy, 2019
Honorarium from Burning Man Arts Grants, 2017
Artist Fellowship - Creative Glass Center of America, Wheaton Arts Center, 2014
Artist Grant - Sari Dienes Foundation, 2011
Fifth Prize in New Media - The Fifth Annual International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Florence, Italy, 2005
First Prize - Pindar Gallery International Competition juried by Barbara Haskell, curator, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1992

Education

Masters Degree in Fine Art - Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts
Bachelors Degree in Art - California College of Art

Solo Exhibitions

New Works on Paper, Union Art Center, Sparkhill, NY, 2019
Drawing With Fire, Spring SoHo Natural, New York, NY, 2019
River Drawings, Arts Alliance of Haverstraw, Haverstraw, NY, 2010-2011
Vessels, Phoenix Gallery, New York, NY, 2009
Pindar Gallery, New York, NY, 1992

Selected Group Exhibitions

Elemental, Bau Gallery, Beacon, NY, 2024
Art + Healing, Emerge Gallery, Saugerties, NY, 2023
Between the Sacred and the Secular, Upstate Art Weekend, Garner Arts Center, Garnerville, NY, 2023
Unleashed, AHA Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY, 2022
Every Woman Biennial, Superchief Gallery NFT, New York, NY, 2021
Connected Fragments, 208 Bowery, New York, NY, 2021
Members Show, Garnerville Arts Center, Garnerville, NY, 2020
Clay Works, Epperson Gallery of Ceramic Arts, Crockett, California, 2019
Room, Loveland Museum Art Gallery, Loveland, Colorado, 2019
Viridian Artists Inc. Twenty-ninth International Juried Exhibition, 2018
Transitional Spaces, Mercy Gallery, Richmond Art Center, 2018
Burning Man Art Festival, Black Rock City, Nevada, 2017
Nasty Women Exhibition, Queens, NY, 2017
Contemporary Perspectives: Drawing on Big Ideas, Lewis Art Gallery, Milsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi, 2016
Dissection, Downtown Artery, Fort Collins, Colorado, 2016
Governors Island Art Fair, New York, NY 2015
Natures Eyes, Sculpture in the Garden, Back to Earth Living, Pomona, NY, 2015
Stream of Consciousness Installation, Garner Arts Center, 2015
Nature, Inc, Rockland Center for the Arts, West Nyack, NY, 2015
The Body in Eden, Wayfarers Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2015
Re-Imagine Exhibition, Garner Art Center, Garnerville, NY, 2013
Fluidity & Fragments, Phoenix Gallery, 3 Person Show, New York, NY, 2008
Peekskill Project, Hudson Valley Contemporary Art Center, 2008
Adjunct Faculty Exhibition, Kresge Gallery, Ramapo College of NJ, 2008
Eric Laxman Gallery, Garnerville, NY, 2008Phoenix Gallery, 50th Anniversary Exhibition, NY, N.Y., 2008
Phoenix Gallery, New Members Show, NY, NY, 2007
Sioux Falls Sculpture Walk, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 2007
Tree Dream Installation, GAGA Arts Center, Garnerville, NY, 2006
Kingston Sculpture Biennial, Kingston, NY 2005
The Catherine Konner Sculpture Park, Rockland Center for the Arts, West Nyack, NY, 2004-2005
Islip Art Museum, Islip, NY, 2003
Brooklyn Pier Show, BWAC, 2003
Safe in my Own Skin Installation, Kresge Gallery, Ramapo College of NJ, 2001
Reliquaries, Bristol Art Museum, Bristol, RI, 1998
Cork Gallery, Lincoln Center, New York, NY, 1998
Dysfunctional Art, Franklin Furnace, New York, NY, 1995

Two-Person Exhibitions

Flow, Lagstein Gallery, Nyack, NY, 2022
Aftermaeth Installation, Phoenix Gallery, New York, NY, 2011
River That Runs Both Ways, Phoenix Gallery, New York, NY, 2011
Riverbed Installation, Hopper House Museum, Nyack, NY, 2004
New Work, 93 South Gallery, Nyack, NY, 1997

International Exhibitions

Me Too Medusa, Kultusciok Arts Collective, Domicella, Italy
Fortuna Avversa Performance, Strozzi Museum, Florence, Italy, 2016
The Net Gallery, Florence, Italy, 2005-2006
The Fifth Annual International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Florence Italy, 2005

Permanent Collections

Creative Glass Center of America, Milford, NJ
Sinte Gleska University, Rosebud Reservation, Mission, South Dakota
Rockland Country Day School, Congers, NY
Private Collection, Victor Williams, Brooklyn, NY
Private Collection, Gail Hovey, Haverstraw, NY

Professional Experience

Member of the International Art Collective, Art Shape Mammoth, 2014-2018
President of the Phoenix Art Gallery, NYC, NY, 2010-2014
Adjunct Professor, LaGuardia College, City University of New York, 2011-present