About

 
HK_HANLEY-in-her-studio.jpg

Alice Neel juried me into my first show, and I work in her tradition of personal, American painting that also includes Fairfield Porter, Milton Avery and Lois Dodd. I paint the ordinary strangeness of life. I love paradox, a result of a life long practice of meditation and interest in image based psychology. My paintings show a world where paddle boards appear with fighter jets, cell phones with intimacy, our climate emergency with herons.

I put a great deal of energy into teaching and collaborating. Artist friends are essential to my work and I am convinced that an international culture based in friendship and the arts will help us meet the many challenges we face globally. I mentor, jury a local residency and curate shows here in New England.



I was born in Queens, New York; the daughter and granddaughter of firefighters. I have a BFA from Hartford Art School and MFA from Vermont College.

For the past 25 years I have lived and painted in New Hampshire with breaks for a Residency year in Dublin, Ireland and a extended trips to teach in Mexico, China, Taiwan and England. Currently my studio is in a former Mill in Harrisville, NH behind a motorcycle shop.

I have exhibited at the Fitchburg Art Museum, MA, Brattleboro Museum, VT, the Mariposa Museum, NH, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA, the Open Center NY, the University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMass and the Attleboro Museum, MA.



Recent Exhibitions

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

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