Opening Reception + Artist Talk: Entangled Beauty with artist Joan Maureen Collins

On View: October 6–November 5, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 14, from 4-6 pm with Artist Talk at 5 pm
Artist Residency: October 9–October 16, 2023

Throughout her twenty-eight year art career, Joan Maureen Collins’ observations of the natural world and the inspiration she receives from spending time in nature, have been a driving force behind her creativity. Her powerful and soulful abstract interpretations of these impressions of the land remind us of the fragility of our natural world. In her new series, Entangled Beauty, the artist hones in on the contrasts she has observed.

“Entangled beauty is like this knotted mess of complex and moving contrasts. For example, the rain is wonderful, floods are not. Or a threatening dark sky surrenders to a rainbow. Nature shows us that beauty comes from these interwoven and subtle complexities – the grit of survival and its exquisite contrast…”

Joan’s other passion is decarbonization and sustainability, and its ultimate impact on our earth. She has been a renewable energy expert for the past twenty years. Her exhibition at the Jen Tough Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, comes on the heels of her annual trip to Ireland where she “painted” empty canvases by washing them in Traligagh Bay in Toe Head, Ireland. Back in her Arizona studio, the unrolled canvases revealed dried impressions of water, seaweed and the organic inks she had applied. She interpreted those works by adding abstract strokes, while purposely leaving haunting traces of our fragile world on the canvas. The artist often invents her own painting tools from found materials such as feathers and sticks which were used in the creation of Entangled Beauty.

Joan is based in Scottsdale, Arizona, and her artwork has been featured in exhibitions nationally and internationally. In 2021, Joan was an invited interviewee for the Phoenix Art Museum, Artist Spotlight program. Most recently, her art has been exhibited in New York City, SCOPE Miami Art Fair, and ArtBox Expo Basel, Switzerland, and was recently featured in the Curator section of Phoenix Magazine. This October Solo Show in Santa Fe will be the debut exhibition of this new body of work.