Joan Jonas | Galleria Raffaella Cortese

joan jonas

biography

Joan Jonas was born in 1936 in New York, where she lives and works.

Jonas is one of the most significant artists in the history of video and performance. Beginning in the 1960s, she placed female subjectivity at the center of her work, employing a complex linguistic repertoire including gestures, storytelling and images in movement. A tireless experimenter, Jonas explores the possibilities inherent to the interdisciplinary nature of art, a characteristic that has made her a point of reference for a young generation of artists. Over time, she has established an intense relationship of exchange in collaborations with visual artists such as Peter Campus and Richard Serra, the performer Ragani Haas and musicians Alvin Curran and Jason Moran.
The continuous renewal and transpositions of the media Jonas experiments with sources from fairy tales to essays, from myths to local folklore and relate newly to contemporary life, both poetically and politically.

Joan Jonas was born in 1936 in New York, where she lives and works.

In 2019, in collaboration with TBA21, has presented an immersive exhibition at Chiesa di San Lorenzo, Venice, which then travelled to Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain in 2020. In 2019 the Kyoto City University of Arts Art Gallery presented Five Rooms For Kyoto: 1972 - 2019, Jonas’ largest solo exhibition in Japan. In 2018 Tate Modern devoted to her a major survey exhibition, which then travelled to Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal. In 2015 Jonas represented the United States at the 56th Venice Biennale. In 2009 the artist was awarded the Guggenheim’s first annual Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jonas's selected solo exhibitions and performances include: Tate Modern, London, UK; Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal; Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain; Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany; HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy; Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna, Austria; Dia:Beacon, Beacon, New York; Fundacion Botin, Santander, Spain; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain; Le Plateau and Jeu de Paume / Hotel de Sully, Paris, France; Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; CCA Kitakyushu, Kitakyushu, Japan; Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany; the Queens Museum of Art, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

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gallery exhibitions

In the Trees

december 3, 2015 – february 27, 2016

via a. stradella 4

Reading Dante IV

november 26, 2010 – february 26, 2011

via a. stradella 7

In Full Bloom

may 12 – july 30, 2010

via a. stradella 7, brown project space, kaleidoscope, luigi presicce studio

Versus Inversus

november 29, 2008 – january 20, 2009

via a. stradella 7

images

Installations

Stream or River Flight or Pattern II, 2016

Multimedia installation: tinted walls, wall drawings, 2 video projections

Dimensions variable

Stream or River Flight or Pattern II, 2016

Multimedia installation: tinted walls, wall drawings, 2 video projections

Dimensions variable

Stream or River Flight or Pattern II, 2016

Multimedia installation: tinted walls, wall drawings, 2 video projections

Dimensions variable

Reading Dante IV, 1976/2010

Installation view at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via Stradella 7, Milan, 2010

Multimedia installation: 4 videos, 3 wall drawings, 2 tables with plexiglass, 2 benches, 1 chalkboard, 1 hanging lamp, 2 floor lamps, 15 drawings

Dimensions variable

Reading Dante IV, 1976/2010

Installation view at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via Stradella 7, Milan, 2010

Multimedia installation: 4 videos, 3 wall drawings, 2 tables with plexiglass, 2 benches, 1 chalkboard, 1 hanging lamp, 2 floor lamps, 15 drawings

Dimensions variable

Reading Dante IV, 1976/2010

Installation view at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via Stradella 7, Milan, 2010

Multimedia installation: 4 videos, 3 wall drawings, 2 tables with plexiglass, 2 benches, 1 chalkboard, 1 hanging lamp, 2 floor lamps, 15 drawings

Dimensions variable

Video works

Flawless Decoys, 2017

Single-channel video (color, sounds)

24'07'' looped

FUTURE LOT: Reading Dante, 2008

Video

6'25''

Mirror Improvisation, 2005

Single-channel video (color, sounds)

6'33'' looped

Wolf Lights, 2004-2005

Single-channel video (color, sounds)

2'49'' looped

Drawings

Untitled, 2017

oil stick on paper

97,1 × 69,85 cm; 107 × 94,4 cm framed

Untitled from Reanimation performance, 2014

Ink on paper

74,5 × 105 cm

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Untitled from Reanimation performance, 2014

Ink on paper

74,5 × 105 cm

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Untitled, 2015

Ink on paper

21 × 30 cm

Untitled, 2015

Ink on paper

21 × 30 cm

Untitled, 2015

Ink on paper

29,3 × 20,5 cm

Untitled, 2015

Ink on paper

29 × 20 cm

Untitled, 2015

Ink on paper

29,5 × 20 cm

Untitled, 2015

Ink on paper

28 × 39 cm

Untitled, 2015

Ink on paper

21 × 30 cm

Untitled, 2015

Ink on paper

30 × 30 cm

Untitled from Reanimation performance, 2014

Chalk on paper

126 × 106 cm; 134,5 × 113,8 cm framed

Untitled from Reanimation performance, 2014

Chalk on paper

126 × 106 cm

Reading Dante III, Philadelphia # 1, 2010

Ink on paper

25 × 32 cm; 29,5 × 36,5 cm framed

Reading Dante III, Philadelphia # 3, 2010

Ink on paper

25 × 32 cm; 29,5 × 36,5 cm framed

Reading Dante III, Philadelphia # 8, 2010

Ink on paper

25 × 32 cm; 29,5 × 36,5 cm framed

public exhibitions

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

Madrid

Moving Off the Land II

25.2 – 18.5.2020

Photo: Roberto Ruiz