Now and Then: Paintings by Joanna Pinsky

MEET THE ARTIST: Saturday, April 10 from 12:30 – 4:00pm | Registration is required.

VIRTUAL ARTIST TALK: Thursday, April 15 from 5:30 – 6:30pm | Registration is required.

Joanna Pinsky is a painter residing in Evanston, Illinois. Working with acrylics, she creates two-dimensional shaped paintings on canvas and gator board as well as rectangular works on paper.  She works with shapes to suggest a dynamic presence that gives a greater sense of reality to the objects. Although flat, the objects are painted to give the illusion of depth. The rectangular works enable her to explore a more traditional format along with using the paint to emphasize the unique quality of water color paper. Central to all of her work is color often applied in layers and incised to reveal underlying colors. Formerly abstract, her paintings now include images of architectural fragments and nineteenth century-heroes including Cuban José Martí and Abraham Lincoln.

Pinsky creates installations of the shaped paintings, hanging them so they seem to interact with each other.  Nothing is hung parallel or perpendicular to the floor giving the appearance that the objects seem to be floating in space like memories when you fall asleep at night, collapsing time and place into unexpected relationships.

Selected solo shows include Space 900 Gallery in Evanston, Perimeter Gallery and Nancy Lurie Gallery in Chicago, the Koehnline Museum of Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, IL; ArtWorks in Waukegan, IL and A.I.R. Gallery in New York City. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in group shows in Hanover, Germany, Syke, Germany; Osaka, Japan; the State of Illinois Building in Chicago, The Illinois State Museum, Springfield; the Ukrainian Art Institute, Chicago; Rockford College Gallery, Rockford, IL,; Shidoni Gallery, Santa Fe, N.M., and galleries in Minneapolis, MN, and Louisville, Kentucky. She is a member of Space 900, an artists’ collaborative and art gallery in Evanston. Corporate and museum collections include the Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Il, Oakton Community College, Millikin University, Decatur, IL, Honeywell, Inc., Minneapolis, Sandoz Corp, Des Plaines, Il, the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Northwestern University Dept. of Mathematics and the Loyola Medical Center, Maywood, IL. She has received feature articles in the Chicago Tribune, Crains Chicago Business and Pioneer Press, and her work has been reviewed in New City Art, Chicago, The Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-times, The New Art Examiner and Pioneer Press. Her work is included in the book, The Chicago Art Scene, by Ivy Sundell, Crow Woods Press, 1999.  Pinsky has a B.F.A. from Cornell University where she majored in painting and studied art history. 

Pinsky is a co-founder and Artistic Director of Art Encounter, a 41 year old non-profit education organization dedicated to educating, empowering, and connecting people of diverse ages and backgrounds through interactive encounters with visual art.