About
“I paint daily life from a holistic point of view that includes the psychoanalytic and imaginal. My paintings of figures, light, animals and plants include unseen, felt presences. As lifelong yogi, I perceive bodies as forms of both individual and collective psyche. I’m interested in how this moment contains the past and the timeless. My process is akin to dreaming, a journey I go on with each work that continues in the mind, eye and heart of the viewer. ”
Joan Hanley is an American artist raised in Queens, NY. Born the daughter and granddaughter of NYC firefighters, Hanley’s professional career began in 1980 when renowned artist Alice Neel juried Hanley into her first exhibition.
She continued painting through a series of professions: artist at the Village Voice, Art Director at Columbia University, Outward Bound Instructor and Archetypal Arts Therapist. While raising two children with author Thomas Moore, she published a book, Art & Yoga, under her spiritual name, Hari Kirin and led workshops across the US, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan and England.
Hanley has exhibited at the Brattleboro Museum, University of Massachusetts Amherst Fine Arts Center, Fitchburg Museum, Attleboro Museum and Manninen Center for the Arts at Endicott College. Her work is available through the Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson, NY.
In 2025 Artsy featured her painting Plato’s Cave on digital billboards in New York City and transit systems throughout the country.
Today, Hanley’s studio sits at the foot of Mt Monadnock in New Hampshire and the nature surrounding her features heavily in her work and environmental lens. Forty six years after that first exhibit the paintings still evoke psychologically charged figures and primarily depict her family and most intimate relationships.
Recent & Upcoming Exhibitions
Carrie Haddah Gallery, Hudson, NY, March 27 to May 17, 2026
The Stairwell, Bridgeport, CT, Imaginaries of Diasporic Self, September, 2025
Cunningham Gallery, Born of Silence, Jaffrey, New Hampshire, August, 2025
The Canopy Gallery, Permission Slip, Chelsea, NY, July, 2025
Three Stones Gallery, Concord, NH, May to June, 2025
Blue Raven Gallery, Rockland, ME, Intimate Paradox, 2024
AVA Gallery, Lebanon, NH, Vegetative Soul, 2024
Gallery 51, North Adams, MA: Reflecting Ecologies, 2023
Conant Gallery, Groton, MA: Screens & Shadows- New Work by Joan Hanley and Humberto Ramirez, 2023
Manninen Center for the Arts, Endicott College, Beverly, MA What’s Going On? Paintings by Joan Hanley, 2022
Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA: 86th Annual Regional Exhibition, 2022
Bridgeport Art Center Gallery, Chicago, IL: Occupy the Moment, 2022
Rochester Museum of Fine Arts, Rochester, NH: Breath of the Forest, 2021
NHIA's Sharon Arts Center Gallery, Peterborough, NH: Monadnock Art Tour Preview Exhibition, 2018
Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro, VT: Wherever You are is the Center of the World, 2011
Hamden Gallery, UMass Amherst, Amherst, MA: In The Public Sphere: Singular Works, Plural Possibilities, 2008
Mariposa Museum, Peterbrough, NH: Hari Amrit In Memorium, 2004
Attleboro Museum, Attleboro, MA: Before After, 2002
Lectures and Teaching
CAL Arts, Santa Calrita, CA. Artist Mentor 2025
MassArt MFA, Boston, MA: Artist Mentor, 2023
Lesley University MFA, Cambridge, MA : Artist Mentor, 2022
Smith College, Northampton, MA: Lecture - Art & Yoga, 2015
Vermont College, Montpelier, VT: Artist Teacher, 2008
Maine College of Art, Portland, ME: Artist Teacher, 2005-6
Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT: Visiting Professor Contemporary Art, 2004
Hofstra University, Queens, NY: Lecture - New Genre Public Art, 2004
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA: Lecture - On Practice, 2000
Education
Vermont College, Montplier, VT: MFA, 2001
Lesley University, Cambridge, MA: MA Creative Arts Therapies, 1988
Hartford Art School, Hartford, CT: BFA , 1976
Podcasts & Interviews
Talk Painting with Brian Rego- Joan Hanley, 2023
The Artist Plunge Podcast, Joan Hanley, 2022