REVIEWS
Beyond Surface, Pazo Fine Art
by Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, July 21, 2024
Dynamism abounds in a tactile textural exhibition
...The four participants in "Beyond Surface," a new exhibition at Pazo Fine Art, began with the language of painting and drawing, but expand that vernacular into the third dimension. The resulting artworks may be sleek. or craggy tightly contained or free form. But all speak fluently to each other, indicating that Pazo Fine Art was astute to convene these artists, three from Washington and one from Baltimore.
Both Joanne Kent and Giulia Livi draw from color field painting yet their work is also sculptural. Kent's rectangular pieces are essentially blocks of a single hue. The artist complicates the format by applying oil paint in thick tangles that produce swells and shallows, and sometimes by including additional shades that are close but not identical to the dominant one. The paintings' beguiling depths are simultaneously illusory and actual....
In the Galleries (Not Strictly Painting)
by Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, November 5, 2023
. . . A few works that are essentially flat nonetheless conjure a three-dimensional experience. Joanne Kent elegantly arrays tufts of paint in shades of green. . . .
In the Galleries (1460 Wall Mountables)
by Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, August 15, 2021
. . . Other highlights include abstract sculptural paintings by Joanne Kent and Wayson R. Jones. Kent sets off dark, richly weathered surfaces with notches, . . . .
Joanne Kent: Recent Works
Gallery K, Washington, DC
by Rebecca Crumlish, washington review, april/may 1999
In a surprising break from her earlier work, Joanne Kent's most recent paintings embrace color as a primary motif. Bold reds, yellows, and blues burst forth from the canvas with aggressive intensity. The sheer quantity of paint on the canvas goes beyond texture to become a sculptural element. The sensuality of oil paint worked with sticks and fingers into a thick confection raises these paintings from the minimalism of their monochromatic form. Both a progression and departure from Kent's previous palette of muted grays and browns, they boldly assert a monumental feel despite their relatively small size.
Kent's interest in ancient cultures and moments was reflected in her earlier work by a preoccupation with muted earth tones, reinforcing allusions to buried objects. The hand polished surface textures took on the look of time-worn ancient reliefs or rubbings. But, like the sight that greets the archaeologist who digs through the rubble of the ages to finally pry open the door to the tomb, Kent's show at Gallery K dazzles the eye with a richness of brilliant color. We see square paintings, each a primary color, yet not a one flat or dull. The strong presence of these paintings is partly the result of their unusual construction. Built up over a gently curved plywood base, layer upon layer of wax, plaster, and viscous oil paint was applied until they bulge with the paint engorged. The artist's love of the sensuality of the paint, itself, takes over. The touch of the human hand is evident in the jagged, pitted texture of the surface, roiling with a lustrous luscious sheen.
The intensity of the bold colors and the tactile qualities of the surface textures combine with energetic harmony to exhibit an uncompromising vision—an antidote, or perhaps a cure, for winter's doldrums.
Rebecca Crumlish is a freelance writer and curator in Washington,DC.
Joanne Kent at Gallery K
Washington, DC
by Ferdinand Protzman, Washington Post, February 18, 1999
Joanne Kent has been exploring the boundary between sculpture and painting in recent years, applying so much oil paint, wax and plaster to panels or canvas that the surfaces become an endless landscape of little peaks and pitlike valleys. Unfortunately, the tactile appeal of those rough textures has often seemed to be about all her paintings had to offer.
But that is not the case in her luminous exhibition of new paintings at Gallery K. The difference is color—warm, radiant and brilliant.
Instead of the blacks, browns and other muted hues that Kent was using a few years ago, her new works have rich, vibrant shades of blue, red, yellow and orange that bring the rough surfaces to life with a wealth of associative possibilities.
"Deep Form Two," for example, is dominated by a subtle blending of blue and aquamarine. Because of the colors, the large rectangular form can be viewed as an azure patch of tropical sea or a window onto a cloudless summer sky or simply an alluring abstraction.
The harmonious blending of color and texture also gives Kent's paintings a meditative quality, a fuzzy, Zenlike illogic. Whether prolonged viewing would result in enlightenment is open to question, but her colorful mantras are a refreshing change from the contrived feeling of some of her previous work.
Selected Works: Joanne Kent and Michael Gessner
PASS, Painting and Sculpture Studio, Washington, DC
by Stuart Greenwell, washington review, december/January 1997
...Joanne Kent has metamorphosed as of late. Her dark, brooding, "organo-industrial" pieces of the last several years have, the past year or so, given way to bright, spiky, meringue-like paintings which have the potential to light up a room. This exhibition features a number of her latest works but sadly only one large one, a delicious, bright yellow painting entitled "Sunshine Sutra." I say sadly because these works always leave the viewer wanting more as they are quite powerful en masse. Kent also shows us a little of what brought her to the current works by including a small sampling of her past styles. "More or Less" is a yellow grid on a background of thick waxy black paint reminiscent of a tarred roof; its strength lying in its masculine handling of its surface. "Wheelworks I" harkens back several years to a time when Kent worked on a monumental scale. The first time I saw her Wheelworks series was at Gallery 10, a nice space but sectioned off into several small rooms, leaving the pieces to engulf them. PASS allows Wheelworks I room to breathe, bringing its scale more in line with what the piece requires....
Joanne Kent, Parish Gallery, Washington, DC
by Stuart Greenwell, Articulate Magazine, 1997
For years artist Joanne Kent's work has been centered around her examination of the boundaries between painting and sculpture. In her recent exhibition at Washington, DC's Parish gallery she continues her quest; however, she has added some bold new dimensions to her work. Kent has introduced bright, explosive color and an even thicker application of paint than she usually utilizes—which is considerable.
Kent, who has in the past worked primarily with black, earth tones and stark white, seemingly has challenged herself to break free from the restrictions of this palette. In these new works she has chosen a palette that begins with primary and secondary colors then diverges from that path by introducing sumptuous pistachios and hot pinks into the scheme.
In the past, her large, box-like forms protruded roughly four to six inches from the wall and featured sensuous, rough, waxy surfaces that beckon to touch. Now Kent one-ups them by adding even more paint that makes each piece reminiscent of a fluorescent oak tree. The abundance of oil paint permeates the room adding to the experience.
For Kent, the box-like forms are intended to work in harmony with the square architectural spaces that we call home. The serial motif employed in this series takes on a Doric sensibility when displayed one next to the other as they were in this show further exemplifying their architectonic qualities.
Ironically, if there was a negative to this show, it was the manner in which they were displayed. There were far too many works in this show and they had a tendency to fight one another for attention. Also, the symmetry between the works was skewed due to some poor placement. In strictly mathematical terms there could have been an equivalence achieved based soley on the number of pieces of similar dimension. Though "equivalence" may not have been the intention here, the aesthetic quality of the show as a whole seemed to call for it. This is an important point for any exhibiting artist to consider.
It will be interesting to see where Kent goes from here as she explores the possibilities of surface, presentation, and place.
Shelf Life: Sculpture Installations
DC Arts Center, Washington
by Rebecca Crumlish, washington review, april/may 1996
. . . The materials used in Joanne Kent's installations take us in a different direction. Her concern for the environment has led her to organic and biodegradable materials. Works themselves are recyclable, but her attraction is to the ancient, the monumental, the permanent. "Journals 1-12" are small, vertical wall pieces embossed to look like snakeskin with wisps of metal, wire and leather. A series of meditations, they allude to "the poetic stuff on the edges of your life," but their casual elegance shows formal concerns, an attempt to draw order from chaos. Kent's other installation, "Time Distrubance 1-5", is bigger, darker, rougher. Like standing stones mounted on a gallery wall, this piece has a brooding presence, mute as opposed to the almost musical Journals. Both a development and a departure from Kent's dark and richly textured paintings, these vertical wall pieces serve another purpose in the context of the entire exhibition, leading the eye in a different direction. . . .
Joanne Kent, "Wheelworks and Other Works"
Gallery 10 Ltd., Washington, DC
by Stuart Greenwell, Articulate Magazine, June 1995
Current Minimalists, 38th Annual Arts Festival, Atlanta, GA
by Laura Orange, in Art Papers, Vol. 16, No. 1, January and February 1992
Galleries
by Benjamin Forgey, Washington Post, May 1987
. . . Kent's paintings, especially those in the "Votive" series, are strangely august. Strangely, I say, bcause at first I was somehow put off by the combination of rough surfaces and seemingly derivative minimal forms. But good minimal paintings are like that—they take time to see. These are tall, near-rectangles of heavily worked canvas; always painted in a particular color tone—violets or grays or blacks. Crucial to their effect are stiff slivers of wood inserted in the middle of their vertical edges. Very human in scale, they seem intensely proud. . . .
Joanne Kent, Rising Stars
by Beth Howard, The Washington Woman, March 1986
Joanne Kent, Paintings, Anton Gallery, Washington, DC
by Mary McCoy, washington review, august/September 1985
Depths of the Surface
by Michael Welzenbach, Washington Post, March 15, 1985
"To have a talent is not enough for you; one must also have your permission to have it, eh, my friends?
–Nietzsche, "Beyond Good and Evil"
Joanne Kent . . . stares at the painting on her studio wall. . . . The painting is a massive affair in heavy white monochrome, dominated by a rigid triangle and bisected by bold, tape-edged lines. The paint has been so heavily applied that the canvas sages under the weight of it.The surface of the painting has been distressed, scumbled and gouged—in places scraped away to reveal almost watercolor-like underpainting.
The overall effect is like the ancient weathered wall of some Egyptian tomb. Or the cracking plaster wall on which it hangs. The painting broods—it is about tragedy.
But Kent does not describe her paintings in terms of tragedy. She describes them in terms of mystical allusions, and gives them whimsical titles such as "Love and Stuff" and "Cephren" (the middle pyramid at Giza).
. . . Joanne Kent's paintings are powerful and painterly. They demand attention. Stacked against the walls, amost entirely blocking the narrow corridor leading to the bedroom, they are almost overwhelming: depressing. But liberated from the ranks to hang solo, they become intriguing, enigmatic. It is their surfaces, more than anything else, that catch the eye. The sculptural effect is enhanced by subtle shading and coloring. Some are reminiscent of Jasper Johns' "Alphabet" series. This impression is reinforced by Kent's use of graphite pencil over the dried paint—vigorous scrawls that could be cryptic writing.
.. . . Joanne Kent's first one-person show opens tomorrow at the Anton Gallery, Capitol Hill.