2022 Interview: Joan Giordano: Painting the Printed Word, June Kelly Gallery Opening, watch here

2022 Exhibition Review: “The Painted Word,” June Kelly , Art & Antiques

2022 Exhibition Review: “Joan Giordano: Painting the Printed Word,” Jonathan Goodman, Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art

 “An emphasis on touch is integral to my work”—Joan Giordano’s statement is central to her art. She works with a large number of materials, including handmade paper, recycled copper, encaustic wax, rolled newspaper, and steel. Using this broad array of elements, the artist fashions low reliefs, which are notable for their variety of textures. The resulting complexity of her works’ surfaces is compelling in the way they combine by overlapping, with color and distinctly different forms resulting in eye-catching intricacies. Not exactly two dimensional, and not truly three dimensional, the assemblages work out to be something in between. Our perception of the work hovers over the disparate elements, so that we direct our gaze up and down and across the exterior of the piece. But Giordano’s art also contains topical allusions derived from what we can read in the newspapers that figure as important components in her reliefs. Not all the newspapers, often rolled up, are in English, but those that are we can understand. They tell us about the news of the time. This gives a historical interest to the works. Thus her art becomes both a facade of textural complexity and a source of information about events that took place some time before the relief was made.

The work It’s a New Dawn (2021) is dense with materials and differing facets.  Dominated by a circle in the center, the work consists of many parts: rolled newspapers; corrugated cardboard; on the lower register, surfaces overrun by variously colored drips of paint. Textures overlap, often fitting together like the parts of the puzzle. Indeed, the exterior of It’s a New Dawn is so diversified as to give the assemblage unusual intricacy, although this regularly happens in Giordano’s work. Then, in It’s Never Really Black and White (2021), made with only two elements, archival newspaper and corrugated cardboard, the work, is entirely given to abstraction. It presents a large rectangle, made mostly of white, ribbed cardboard. In the center, we find a row of thin, vertical ovals ending in points. These ovals are topped by the bright red colors of tightly rolled magazines, while on the bottom the rectangle is flanked on either side by cardboard that is mostly light. It is topped by a thin stripe of gray and then a larger expanse of brown. Underneath the tall ovals is a rectangular expanse of black cardboard, on top of which we see three rolled journals.

It is hard to bring into discussion the events related by the news publications, which present a readable word or a phrase but do not give us the chance to see more. So the topicality of the art is limited, and the rolled journals are more important in their function as visual elements. Yet the intimation of history hovers over these reliefs, even if we don’t know the details of the events. As a result, Giordano involves us with an account we cannot fully see or understand. The strength of these works remain mostly visual. In Wonderment (2021), rolls of periodicals, aligned both vertically and horizontally, fill most of the middle of the construction. Otherwise, the composition is divided into halves: light, corrugated cardboard with burned edges occurs on the lower left and right, while the top half consists of thin striations of paper, with a collage of black squares and corrugated cardboard filling its center. The overall gestalt of the low reliefs is relatively similar; Giordano has found a way of tying the experience of one work to the next by regularly using the same materials. Her art might be likened to a fugue: the repetition of form and substance that takes on differing yet also common arrangements. These pieces, then, combine effects with singular results, mirroring each other as they offer changing versions of a rich template. The results are very good. WM

2019 Catalogue: The Art Show, ADAA, Park Avenue Armory

2019 Interview: Spotlight on the Arts, Patrick Christiano, TheatreLife.com, watch here

2019 Review: “Color, Form, and Texture,” with photographs by Deborah Feingold, Wagner Magazine, read here

2018 Review: “Joan Giordano,” National Association of Women Artists, Inc.

2018 Catalogue: “Paper Moon (Hartino to Feggaraki),” Dr Thalia Vrachopoulos

2017 Exhibition Review: Woven In Time/ Sculpture, “Joan Giordano’s Grand Gestures,” Dr. Thalia Vrachopoulos, Sculpture Magazine, Jersey City, NJ

2016 Feature: “Encaustic Art of the Twenty First Century,” B. Ashley Rooney, Schiffer Publishing

2016 Review: Publishers Weekly

" A fine art standout is Joan Giordano's Fantasy Journey, a collage of newspapers lithography, graphite and paint, with archival images bleeding into vintage papers printed over ghostly floral designs".2015, Review, Woven Tail Press: August Edition; Online publication editor, Sandra Tyler     

2015 Review: Woven Tale Press: August Edition, Sandra Tyler

2012 Interview: Woman Around Town: Joan Giordano— A Painter Finds Her Passion for Paper, Charlene Giannetti read here

2012 Review: The Lookout: Art In America, Editors Choice

"Her constructions using newspapers are an homage to the beleaguered print medium,” July 19, 2012 

2012 Review: "Pleasant Unease in the Fresh Aesthetic Air,” Peter Plagens, The Wall Street Journal

"Ten years ago, Joan Giordano (b. 1942) enjoyed an artist's residency in Japan. She studied papermaking and grew fond of the form of kimonos. Couple those interests, now, to an infatuation with newspapers—with such delicious names as Corriere della Sera, Le Soir and the Plain Dealer—and you have her current exhibition of elaborate but very grid-disciplined constructions. Although Ms. Giordano is fond of such often-overlooked masters of delicate collage as Anne Ryan and William Dole, she's much more brutal with her material—she tears holes in her corrugated-board armatures, and dries wet newspapers around heating pipes in her basement to form them into cylinders—and she makes works of art that measure in feet, not inches.

They are "constructions," all right, rather than mere collages: Ms. Giordano inserts rolled newspapers (she's fond of fonts in Hebrew, Arabic and Korean) through belt-loop-like sections of the corrugated board, which in turn anchors pasted strata of those paper purveyors of news to make handsome works that hang on the wall like a Samurai's divested armor. If I have any misgivings about Ms. Giordano's constructions, it's that they are a little too can't-miss, a little too stately—too suitable for corporate offices. After all, big grids in white, brown, beige and touches of dark red, with masses of small typography, can hardly go wrong. Pretty soon, though, there may not be any more newspapers, and art such as Ms. Giordano's will serve as well-designed mementos of a bygone medium."

2012 Catalogue: Pilimpsest Encaustic, Essay by Thalia Vrachopoulos, Art Link Gallery, Seoul, Korea

2011 Conference: "Affinities Fiber and Wax,” Joanne Mattera, Surface Design Journal

2009 Catalogue: Women Artists’ Biennale, Incheon, South Korea

2008 Review: “Artist draws inspiration from Japan, Greece,” Marie Fowler, Mainline Times, Philadelphia, PA

2007 Review:“New York Joan Giordano; Tenri Cultural Institute,” Jonathan Goodman, Sculpture, Jersey City, NJ

2007 Review: “Dip Into ‘Triptychs,” Germain Lussier, Times Herald, Sarasota, FL

2006-2009 Catalogue: Paper Cuts: The Art Of Contemporary Paper, Media Gallery, Exhibition Tour by Exhibits USA, Garnett, Kansas

2004 Review: “Japanese Inspired and Nature Infused,” William Zimmer, The New York Times, New York, NY

2004 Review: “East Meets West At the Hammond Museum,” L.P. Streitfeld, The Advocate & Greenwich Times, Hammond, CT

2002 Catalogue: Spirit of the Planet, Art in Embassies United States Mission to International Organizations, Vienna, Austria

2001 Review: The Art of Encaustic Painting, Joanne Mattera, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, NY

2000 Catalogue: Paper Road, Museo Santa Maria Della Scala, Siena, Italy; Instituzione del Comune di Siena, in collaboration with International Association of Hand Paper Makers and Paper Artists IAPMA, Intnl Assoc Papermaking Artists

2000 Review: “Imagery of Three Artists Is Contrasted in Pearl River Exhibit,” Dominick Lombardi, The New York Times, New York, NY

1999 Catalogue: The Savannah College of Art and Design Presents New York Artists Equity Assoc., Inc., Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA

1999 Catalogue: Pulp Function, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA

1999 Catalogue: Waxing Poetic/Encaustic Art In America, Gail Stavitsky, The Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ

1999 Interview: “Joan Giordano’s Elemental Forms,” Sandra Sider, Fiberarts

1999 Review:“Wax as Medium and a Message,”  William Zimmer, The New York Times, New York, NY

1999 Review: “12 Artist -Teachers Take Paper in Hand,”  Bess Leibenson, The New York Times, New York, NY

1999 Interview: “Joan Giordano at Staten Island Institute of Art,” Robert Curcio, Cover-Arts

1999 Review: “Sculptor Seeks ideas In Paper And Metal; Joan Giordano Meditates on ‘Skin: Structure and Form,” Michael Fressola, Staten Island Sunday Advance, Staten Island, NY

1999 Review: “PLAYING IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD; A Woman, a Plan, a Canal: Gowanus Documentary,” Maureen C. Muenster, The New York Times, New York, NY

1998 Interview: “Sarasota Sculptor Talks With Textures,” Joan Altabe, Sarasota Herald Tribune, Sarasota, FL

1997 Review: Art In Embassies, Embassy Of The United States Of America, Friends of Art & Preservation in Embassies. Catalogues: Nicosia, Cyprus: U.S. State Department

1997 Catalogue: Fiberart International ’97. Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

1997 Review: “Donald Judd, Joan Giordano ‘Splashing’,” Vincent Katz, The New York Times, New York, NY

1997 Review: “Museum Exhibits Showcase Work of Two Renowned Artists,” Paper Tidings, Museum of Papermaking, Atlanta, GA

1997 Review:“Story Of paper Unfolds at Museum,” HM Cauley, The Atlanta Journal/The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, GA 

1997 Review: “On and Off the Wall,” Rob Walton, Creative Loafing, Atlanta, GA

1997 Review: “Visual Art Recommended,” The Atlanta Journal/The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, GA

1996 Review:“Metal, Thread the Media in Museum Exhibit,” Stacie Mackenzie, Danville Register and Bee, Danville, TX

1995 Catalogue: Life: Color: Form, An Exchange Group Exhibition Between Japan & USA - Provincetown- Koganei, Tokyo

1995 Review: “New Art Center Exhibits Color for Fall,” Bonnie Donnelly, The Parkersburg News, Parkersburg, WV

1995 Review: “Art: Making New History,” Joan Altabe, Sarasota Herald Tribune, Sarasota, FL

1994 Catalogue: Joan Giordano. Foreword by Nancy Princenthal, Steel Angels Museum Tour

1994 Review: “Giordano’s ‘Ancient’ Objects Are Items of Inwardness,” Joan Altabe, Sarasota Herald Tribune, Sarasota, FL

1992 Review:“Manhattan Profile/Joan Giordano,” Tony Riveti, Newsday, New York, NY

1982 Review: "Doing Art Together,” Muriel Silberstein-Storfer, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.