I'm an intuitive painter. My practice is rooted in the spontaneous act of mark making, a dialogue between my mind, heart, and hand at any particular time. Beginning without a predetermined outcome, I allow my mood and memories to lead. Working intuitively helps me stay in that mindset, and takes me to that moment of joy when I first felt the wonder of playing with liquid color.
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Abstraction offers me boundless freedom, a space where composition and transformation coexist. I'm particularly intrigued by color relationships: how colors are affected by what is adjacent to them and what else is going on in the work. Simple brush strokes at the outset give way to many layers of overlapping colors that shift and dissolve, creating a movement of floating, amorphous shapes.
Mainly working with quick-drying acrylics, anything goes: pastels, graphite, or other media often become mixed in with the paint. The stroke of a brush loaded with pigment - how does it relate to parameters of the surface? Surprises occur. Each work is an open field for experimentation, a set of discoveries and an exploration unto itself. ​In the end, each painting is a record of its own becoming, a suspended moment in an ongoing process driven by learning, continual new beginnings, and growth. It is a process I love.
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BIO
Joan Knauer is a New Jersey-based abstract painter whose work reflects a lifelong passion for texture, color and design. She began her artistic journey in childhood with drawing, later exploring ceramics while earning an MA in Art and Education at Columbia University Teachers College. Upon retirement she delved into collage, but it was the fluidity and immediacy of acrylic paint that captured her imagination and inspired her to focus on abstract painting.​
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Born in Brooklyn and raised on suburban Long Island, having worked as an educator for many years, Joan has lived in New Jersey since 1983. Joan delights in the painting process itself, finding joy in the moments when unexpected relationships emerge on the canvas and transform into something wholly new. Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including shows with the National Association of Women Artists, where she is a Signature member, The Art of Healing at Englewood Hospital, Hackensack Center for the Performing Arts, the Riverside Gallery, and a solo show at the Haworth Library, among others. Her paintings are held in many private collections and continue to resonate with viewers drawn to the vibrancy and spontaneity of her style.
Photo: Raylie Dunkel
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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND HAPPENINGS
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2025
Haworth Public Library, Blue Dove, Haworth, NJ 5/17-6/30;
Haworth Public Library, The Pure Landscape Show, Haworth, NJ 10/4-12/1
National Association of Women Artists 136th Annual Exhibition, Leonovich Gallery, NYC 6/6-6/21
Riverside Gallery, March Mosaic, Hackensack, NJ 3/17-31
2024
Waltuch Gallery, A Child's World, Tenafly, NJ 12/3-12/30
Englewood Hospital, Art of Healing Juried Exhibition, Englewood, NJ 11/22-8/2025
Cafe Leo, Solo Exhibit, Leonia, NJ 10/1-10/29
Leach Gallery, Studio Montclair State of the Art, Montclair, NJ 7/12-8/16
Blue Hill Art and Cultural Center, Women in the Arts, Pearl River, NY 6/1-8/17
Haworth Public Library, Solo Exhibit, Coming to Form, Haworth, NJ 6/1-6/28
2023
Gallery Episode, Eureka!, Leonia, NJ 11/18-12/9
Fair Lawn Public Library, Autumn Renewal, Fair Lawn, NJ 9/17-10/27
Englewood Hospital, Art of Healing Juried Exhibition, Englewood, NJ 9/15/23-8/19/24
Hackensack Performing Arts Center, (Untitled), Hackensack, NJ 7/8-8/31
Leach Gallery, Studio Montclair State of the Art, 6/23-8/18
National Association of Women Artists 134rd Annual Exhibition, One Art Space, NYC 6/16-7/1
Bełskie Museum, Renewal, Closter, NJ 6/4-6/25
Hackensack Performing Arts Center, Spring, Hackensack, NJ 4/4 - 5/30
Mikhail Zakin Gallery, 20 Years of Collage, Demarest, NJ 2/7 - 3/14
Bełskie Museum, Hope Out of Darkness Juried Exhibition, Closter, NJ 2/5 - 2/26
2022
National Association of Women Artists New Members Exhibition, Trask Gallery at the National Arts Club, NYC 11/7-11/18 and online
National Association of Women Artists 133rd Annual Exhibition, One Art Space, NYC, 10/14-10/29 and online
Exit 70a and Friends Outdoor Art Show Methodist Church Lawn, Leonia, NJ 10/9
Hackensack Performing Arts Center, Joy, Hackensack, NJ 10/3 - 11/14
Riverside Gallery, Liminal Showcase 2 Juried Show, Hackensack, NJ 10/1-18
Riverside Gallery, Favorites, Hackensack, NJ 9/13-29
Englewood Hospital, Art of Healing Juried Exhibition, Englewood, NJ 9/3/22-8/18/23
Gaelen Center for the Arts, Juried Art Show, JCC MetroWest, W. Orange, NJ 6/12-7/31
Exit 70a and Friends Outdoor Art Show, Methodist Church Lawn, Leonia, NJ 4/30
Pomona Cultural Center, Winter Art Exhibit, Pomona, NY 2/6-3/20
2021
Art and La Cuisine, Madeleine’s Petit Paris, Northvale, NJ
Englewood Hospital, Art of Healing Juried Exhibition, Englewood, NJ
Studio Montclair, Privilege, Power and Everyday Life Juried Exhibition, Montclair, NJ
2020
Englewood Hospital, Art of Healing Juried Exhibition, Englewood, NJ
2019
High Mountain Presbyterian Church, Precious Objects, Franklin Lakes, NJ
Studio Montclair, Everyday Objects Juried Exhibition, Montclair, NJ
State of NJ Senior Juried Exhibition, Honorable Mention Non Professional Acrylic, East Windsor, NJ
Bergen County Senior Juried Exhibition, First Place Non Professional Acrylic, Art Center of NNJ, New Milford, NJ
Hackensack Performing Arts Center, Save Our Mother Earth, Hackensack, NJ
Englewood Hospital, Art of Healing Juried Exhibition, Englewood, NJ
Monmouth Museum, Member Miniatures, Lincroft, NJ
2018
Union Arts Center, Creativity Explored, Sparkhill, NY
Englewood Hospital, Art of Healing Juried Exhibition, Englewood, NJ
State of NJ Senior Juried Exhibition, Non Professional Acrylic, East Windsor, NJ
Bergen County Senior Juried Exhibition, First Place Non Professional Acrylic, Art Center of NNJ, New Milford, NJ
Palisades Library, Moving Toward Abstraction, Palisades, NY
Rockland Center for the Arts, 2018-19 Catalog Cover Artist, West Nyack, NY
2017
Art Center of NNJ, Focus NJ Juried Show, New Milford, NJ
Temple Emeth Members Showcase, Teaneck, NJ
Art Center of NNJ, Celebrating Bergen County’s Diversity Juried Exhibition, First Place Acrylic, New Milford, NJ
2016
Unitarian Society Cottage Gallery, Collage Collective, Ridgewood, NJ
Studio Montclair, State of the Art, Montclair, NJ
2015
Art Center of NNJ, Celebrating Bergen County’s Diversity Juried Exhibition, New Milford NJ