Joan Linder (b. 1970) works with the traditional materials of a quill pen and ink to create large-scale drawings of figures, objects, and sites of meaning that explore the relationship between the observer and the observed. Often rendering her subjects in life-size, artworks examine a diversity of subject matter aiming to express the complexity and variety of contemporary life. 

Linder has exhibited at Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York, Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College, Davis Gallery, Hobart William Smith Colleges, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Queens Museum, Faulconer Gallery at Grinnell College, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (now Buffalo AKG), Omi International Art Center, Sun Valley Art Center, and Weatherspoon Art Museum, among others. She studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and holds a MFA from Columbia University and a BFA from Tufts University. Past awards and residencies include MacDowell, Yaddo, Smack Mellon, Ucross Foundation, Art Omi, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, plus a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant. Linder lives and works in Buffalo, NY and is a Professor of Art at the University of Buffalo.

SELECT SOLO Exhibitions

• Fulfillment, Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York, NY, 2024

• Belly, Rivalry Projects, Buffalo, NY, 2024

• Prime, Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College, NY, 2023

• Brood, Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY, 2020

• Operation Sunshine, Freedman Gallery, Albright College, PA, 2018

• Atomic Highways and Byways, Institute of the Humanities, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 2017

• Operation Sunshine, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY, 2016

• Drawn Home, Charles Benenson Gallery, Omi International Art Center, Ghent, NY, 2014

• Sink, Mixed Greens, New York, NY, 2013

• Domestic Products, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2010

• the pink, Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY, 2007

• White Room, White Columns, 2003

• When? Now., Queens Museum of Art at Bulova Corporate Center, Queens, NY, 2000

SELECT PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

• Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY

• Burchfield Penny Art Museum, Buffalo, NY

• Davis Museum, Wellesley College, MA

• Department of Education, New York, NY

• Ewing Gallery of Art, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN

• The Gwangju Art Museum, South Korea

• Metropolitan Transit Authority, New York, NY

• Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, CA

• Rosewell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY

• The West Collection, Philadelphia, PA