What painterly techniques can bring a landscape to life? And how much distance can the naked eye behold? Artist Joanna Joseph specialises in movement, and her paintings induce a sensation of range. Swathes of sky and water refigure themselves around dark, resilient cliffs. These expansive environments churn, they’re spirited.

Joseph sets out to combine the power of nature with the reverence of it. Her time spent in the water with her longboard, has opened up a majestic world of undulating waters set against watchful cliff faces stretching to the sky. This world and Joseph exist most days, on the Mahia peninsula. Here, a low hum resides in the gaps between waves and tides. Active, non-conforming, comforting and ever- lasting.

Under heaving skies, immense waves barrel toward ancient, dark bedrock. What’s striking about these paintings is their physicality. Uninterrupted strokes required Joseph to walk the length of up to six metre long canvases. Images created by such actions demand a corresponding agility in its viewers. These landscapes immerse us. The volume of paint! She applies oils lavishly

Exhibition

Catalogue

Click here to download a PDF catalogue of available artworks by this artist [3.7MB]

Paintings

biography

Joanna Joseph was born in 1971 in Wellington New Zealand. She graduated with a Diploma of Fine Arts from The Otago School of Fine Art in 1994 having exhibited throughout the Otago region, Invercargill, Christchurch and Wellington since 1995.

After recently relocating her practice and family to Wairoa, her newest series of large-scale paintings reflect on aspects of environmental interest within depictions she calls ‘land portraits.’ These “portraits” have also included national anthropological history reflecting conversations between natural worlds sharing continuous narratives captivated by life, laughter, love and layered complexities that are downright sad; “Mahia is, my in the moment space.” – JJ © 2022

This will be Joseph’s first exhibition at PAULNACHE, Turanganui-a-Kiwa Gisborne.

Media

• In The Moment, by Mark Peters, Published June 09, 2022 10:50AM, The Arts Guide, Gisborne Herald, June 2022 – Read the article …

• Listen: Mahia Peninsula shines in new exhibition by Joanna Joseph 3′50″ Radio New Zealand

Credits

Photographs by Thomas P Teutenberg, courtesy of © the artist and PAULNACHE Gallery.

Text excerpt from ‘Deep Waters and Skies with Strong Physicality’ combined with words written by Angela Trolove.

Special thanks to Wairoa Museum and Hastings City Art Gallery for their early involvement to exhibit works in support of Joanna’s practice and career as an emerging artist.