Joanna Cortez
Joanna in her Queens-based studio.
Joanna Cortez is a New York based artist currently living and working in Queens and Providence, Rhode Island. She received her MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University in 2020.
Can you tell us a bit about the process of making your work?
The way that I make work is pretty impulsive and reactive to whatever environment I’m in. If i have access to a print shop, I'll make some prints. If I’m at my parents’ for a couple months like I was last year, I fix fences, mix dirt, and make planters. One through line is that overall, I like working with found materials more than I like to work with freshly purchased anything. I usually start by being a material to work in first, and then see where it takes me.
What are you working on at the moment?
Right now I’m bouncing back and forth between two charcoal drawings. I wove the surface for one of the drawings last year, but I finally have a space to work on them.
Two charcoal drawings in Joannas studio
We are drawn to the paper creases in your drawing as they remind us of the passing of time and the mark of history. We were wondering if you could tell us about the importance of a personal narrative or history throughout your work?
Joanna Cortez
Celestial Beings, 2020.
18 x 24 inches (45.72 x 60.96 centimeters).
Graphite and acrylic on paper.
It’s important to me that my work doesn’t hide its own material history. It makes me feel more connected to whatever I’m working as an object and also works as a way to hint at personal narratives. This drawing and others I did around the same time all have similar folds—a mark of being fitted into a backpack as I was forced to bounce around state to state chasing jobs and stability during the pandemic.
Some of the drawings around this time were used like a whiteboard while I taught remotely. I pointed a webcam at them and drew on with soft charcoal that could be easily wiped away. I could use one piece of paper for weeks as I taught drawing remotely. That same piece of paper then becomes a drawing of its own, and I like that someone might be able to see it had a history.
What are some references you draw upon in your work? Are there any themes in particular that you like to focus on when creating?
My work has always in some way dealt with ideas of economic migration and the search for shelter/stability. I reference some of the places, good and bad, that I’ve lived in. I reference Mexican blankets, nature, chainlink, and other domestic imagery that’s meaningful to me. Recently, I’ve been thinking about coyotes in southern California suburbs and their adaptation to suburban encroachment--the a lot of times fraught relationships between these creatures trying to eke out some space in the world and the local community.
Joanna Cortez
North County Picnic, 2019
51 x 64 x 24 inches
screenprint, porcelain, wood, and Coronas
Where are some of your favorite spaces that support contemporary art or design? Now that the art has an online presence has that changed?
Right now what’s exciting me the most is the level of engagement possible when so much art is online. Artists and curators are more able to reach directly out to each other and have conversations immediately and it's easier to keep up with what people are making. For some artists, being able to participate in the art world and potentially even sell work remotely has been a lifeline, especially during this past year.
Do you have any shows coming up? Anything else you would like to share
Right now, I’m in the beginning stages of documenting and looking over a lot of the work that I made in 2020. That's the biggest project that I'm working on right now.
Joanna Cortez’s work is included in our show “Eternal Flame,” Jan. 1st – Feb. 28th. Visit her website or Instagram (@joanna.c.cortez) to see more of her work.