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JOAN COX

Painting, Visual / Media

Joan draws on her life with her partner of twenty three years as well as the intimate lives of lesbian couples in her community. She focuses on stories championing their undeniably intense, complex, celebratory, and still taboo relationships. Her paintings encourage viewers to recognize and celebrate the authenticity of intimate relationships between two women, highlighting and affirming the true tenets of love.

About the Artist

Joan Cox (born 1969) is a figurative painter who focuses on painting intimate relationships between women. Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, Joan navigated her formative years during a time when LGBTQ+ identities were often marginalized and silenced. Cox portrays the complex, dynamic, sensual, and loving relationships between women in her work. Her subjects are drawn from her immediate circle, featuring her friends and lesbian couples in her community. She fearlessly depicts herself and her wife, inviting viewers into their lives and personal narratives. By sharing their stories, Joan aims to humanize and demystify lesbian relationships, fostering understanding, empathy, and acceptance. Joan holds an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art & Design. Her solo exhibition, Sapphic Gaze, was held at the IA&A Hillyer Gallery in Washington, DC in August 2024 with an opening reception during the DuPont Circle First Friday Art Walk on Friday, August, 2. 2024. For more information on her work and exhibition schedule, follow her Instagram @joancoxartist and visit her website at joancoxart.com.

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Artist's Statement

I place my work in the context of identity politics. As a feminist and a lesbian, I identify strongly with the concept of ‘other’ in my personal life and in my painting. I have a desire to see images of my sub-culture presented in museums and galleries. I use narrative, symbolism, fantasy, and autobiography to depict a taboo intimacy between women—acknowledging and emphasizing the female gaze. I draw on my own life to build narratives that are part fantasy and part memory as I investigate themes of otherness with celebratory optimism. I present myself in my work in the form of a self-portrait, whether I am literally depicting myself and my partner or other women as stand-ins for me. The body is the universal signifier of identity and the self-portrait is arguably the most intimate signifier of identity. By creating self-portraits, literally or metaphorically, I am sewing pieces of myself into each image with undeniable contemporaneity. I enter into dialogue with artists who have come before me by appropriating compositional elements of works by artists like Frida Kahlo, Egon Schiele, Henri Rousseau and Magritte.I place my work in the context of identity politics. As a feminist and a lesbian, I identify strongly with the concept of ‘other’ in my personal life and in my painting. I have a desire to see images of my sub-culture presented in museums and galleries. I use narrative, symbolism, fantasy, and autobiography to depict a taboo intimacy between women—acknowledging and emphasizing the female gaze. I draw on my own life to build narratives that are part fantasy and part memory as I investigate themes of otherness with celebratory optimism. I present myself in my work in the form of a self-portrait, whether I am literally depicting myself and my partner or other women as stand-ins for me. The body is the universal signifier of identity and the self-portrait is arguably the most intimate signifier of identity. By creating self-portraits, literally or metaphorically, I am sewing pieces of myself into each image with undeniable contemporaneity. I enter into dialogue with artists who have come before me by appropriating compositional elements of works by artists like Frida Kahlo, Egon Schiele, Henri Rousseau and Magritte.

Featured Work

Photos

This is a domestic portrait of a queer/lesbian couple. The figure on the left is ambiguously gendered and has their attention fully focused on the woman who is in a kneeling, more diminutive pose however the woman in her bold dress, stares bold out at the viewer. She takes ownership of her space and her life...sharing this loving intimate moment with the world. This painting attempts to render the tenderness and "normalness" of queer relationships — creating a work that can resonate with queer viewers and open the minds and hearts of this not in our community. My work represents "us" in the traditional medium of paint in order to validate our stories.
Painting of a lesbian couple in their own garden of eden. One figure is very gender neutral or ambiguous and even begins to blend into the background of foliage with her pattered shirt but the halo of tiny white lowers lifts her head clearly into view while the other figure, pregnant and full of life, hands her a tomato she has just picked in their garden. The full frame is filled to the brim with life, foliage, flowers and garden...insulating the couple in their own magical world.
Historically, society has ignored the notion of the very existence of lesbian couples. Images of female couples in both painting and photography have been repressed, hidden, or explained only as erotic material for the male gaze. I draw on my own life with my partner of 20 years, as well as on the intimate lives of lesbian couples in my community — building visual narratives that champion these undeniably intense, complex, celebratory, and still-taboo relationships between women. This is a self-portrait of my wife and I in our home in an intimate moment. It both welcomes and challenges viewers while empowering the queer perspective.
Queer family portrait featuring a literal family tree with names of direct ancestors — going back over a thousand years — painted as bark texture. The portraits features a self-portrait in addition to portrait of my wife and child, 3 dogs, and our favorite tree in our neighborhood park at Sherwood Gardens in Baltimore.

Written Works