JOAN GIORDANO | BIOGRAPHY

"Much of my work incorporates paper of some kind. Paper serves both as the matrix of my imagination and the embodiment of the forms I make. I feel it is imbued with a presence that evokes history and the passage of time. The insertion of texts alludes to the ubiquitous media spin and myths, woven directly into the fabric of the paintings, sculptures and mixed media installations. An emphasis on touch is integral to my work. For me, very often memories are evoked through touch. By fusing together the disparate materials used in my art, I am collecting and connecting these experiences.” - Joan Giordano

Over 100 international museums have exhibited Joan Giordano’s work for half a century, who has pushed the boundaries of the many materials she works with: handmade paper, recycled copper, encaustic wax, rolled newspapers, and steel, to name a few. She is enchanted by the cycles of change the materials reveal and the poetic sentiments they evoke. Joan masterfully molds beautiful forms that are as tough as they are delicate, as spiritual as they are material, and as abstract as they are laden with layers of history that can be “read” by viewers. Sometimes the readings are literal, as with her most recent body of work that features layers of text from newspapers from around the world. Other times, the reading is more metaphorical and spiritual, like fragments of memories we feel most when our senses are awakened. This artistic “alchemy” is often achieved through Giordano’s intricate juxtaposition of materials - and the unconventional way she works them.

Shifting from two to three dimensional representation of forms was a pivotal shift in Giordano’s practice and is a defining element of her career. When she began making paper by hand in the 1970s, she fell in love with the tactile quality of moving plant fibers in water. She developed her lauded “Steel Angels” during this period - large steel armatures with layers of mesh and paper pulp, hand-applied paint, and encaustic wax. Her “Steel Angels” were exhibited around the world and became a coveted part of the United States’ Art in Embassies program. Soon after, Giordano was invited to study kozo papermaking at the Fujimori Factory in Japan with master paper maker Yoshi Fujimori, a national treasure who taught her Japan’s famed ancient techniques. Through these collaborative workshops, Giordano created “Washi Warrior,” which translates to “Paper Warrior” - a massive paper sculpture that resembles the steel armor of ancient Japanese warriors while retaining the fineness of paper. 

This counterintuitive balancing of delicacy with toughness is an ongoing, defining feature of Giordano’s work. Many movements and artists have inspired individual aspects of her practice. Through repeated gouging, burning, rubbing, and welding metals like steel, Giordano’s work calls forth the industrial force of sculptures by Frank Stella. Her use of humble, found materials - such as recycled copper - places her work in conversation with arte povera artists like Guiseppe Penone, as well as contemporary assemblage masters like El Anatsui and Judy Pfaff. 

Her most recent series of work takes the tactility of paper, and the physical processes of burning and shaping it, into the realm of political commentary in the spirit of Jenny Holzer’s recent “Dust Paintings.” Whereas Holzer paints over sensitive government documents, Giordano collects and assembles newspaper articles from around the world into her archetypal sculptural shapes. The pieces invite viewers to see how the same news stories are presented in different ways. It asks us to ponder, “Who Owns the News?”

Giordano lives and works in New York City and upstate. She is represented by June Kelly Gallery, New York and has enjoyed more than sixty museum and gallery exhibitions, both nationally and internationally.

She is the recipient of several residencies, awards and honors: including a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts including residencies at: YADDO Foundation, Saratoga Springs, NY; Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Sweet Briar, VA; Women's Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY; Awagami Paper International in Tokushima, Japan; and Conversations In Contemporaneity, Otronto, Italy.

Her work has been written about in The New York Times, Art in America, ArtNews and CitiArts. She has been an invited to conduct lectures, workshops and symposiums at museums and art institutions in Chile, Italy, Japan, Korea and Greece.