JOAN SEMMEL

Semmel is a NYC native who studied at Cooper Union and the Art Student’s League of New York before earning her MFA from Pratt Institute in 1972. Her primary focus has always been painting in the figurative tradition, and she is best known for creating large scale works depicting her own body, often from her perspective looking down, or with the aid of cameras and mirrors. In the 1970’s, Semmel was making note of the overwhelming objectification of women and their bodies in art history and the contemporary media, so she began to direct her attention toward the emerging political orientations of feminism in artistic practice. This led to her involvement in such groups as the Ad Hoc Committee of Women Artists and the Art Worker’s Coalition (AWC).

In terms of her own practice, she was not dissuaded by the dominant feminist discourse of the time which isolated painting, and especially the nude, as a male-centric “colonized territory,” opting for a headlong dive into the. Engaging with themes such as sex, aging, and narcissism her works often incorporate bright or pastel colors and weave together abstract forms with representational imagery of the female body. She has said of her work that “the connecting thread across decades is a single perspective: being inside the experience of femaleness and taking possession of it culturally.” She has won numerous grants and awards, including from the NEA, and in 2013 received the Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award. She is currently Professor Emeritus in Painting at Rutgers University.