Joanna Cutri
(1975, Los Angeles, CA)
Painter
Joanna Cutri, a Los Angeles native, has an extensive visual arts background beginning at the Los Angeles High School for the Arts. She continued her studies at the Cleveland Institute of Art and in Cortona, Italy. Joanna received her Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from the University of Georgia in 1998.
Her world travels began while living in Italy. After graduation, her wanderlust led her around the globe, influencing her art along the way.
Joanna's exposure to different cultures and genres of art has greatly impacted how she creates and approaches her own work. Her complex, personal style combines various mixed media and collage elements, resulting in layer upon layer of color, texture and imagery.
Currently, Joanna lives and works in Bali, Indonesia, where her vision of life and art are inspired by nature and the rich creative lifestyle of the Balinese. Joanna has had numerous exhibitions in southeast Asia, Australia, South Africa as well as in the US
Artist Statement
"My present, new works is an accumulation of all my life’s experiences and world travels resulting in layers upon layers of textures, colors, and materials on canvas. The final piece reveals itself in an intuitive manner never to be recreated. Isolating the process and end product is one of kind, capturing the moment making it permanent. Memories, emotions and ideas are processed by experimenting with mixed mediums allowing the experience to just happen. It is all created by chance and feeling, there is nothing forced or planned, it naturally evolves as it should in its own time effortlessly. I remain open to the possibility of what can be, always in child like wonder and inspired by nature. I create my art the way I live my life. The outcome is a multi layered, rich, captivating surface that draws you in as you discover various subtleties throughout, evoking curiosity to what lies beneath."
Joanna Cutri, 2008
Her world travels began while living in Italy. After graduation, her wanderlust led her around the globe, influencing her art along the way.
Joanna's exposure to different cultures and genres of art has greatly impacted how she creates and approaches her own work. Her complex, personal style combines various mixed media and collage elements, resulting in layer upon layer of color, texture and imagery.
Currently, Joanna lives and works in Bali, Indonesia, where her vision of life and art are inspired by nature and the rich creative lifestyle of the Balinese. Joanna has had numerous exhibitions in southeast Asia, Australia, South Africa as well as in the US
Artist Statement
"My present, new works is an accumulation of all my life’s experiences and world travels resulting in layers upon layers of textures, colors, and materials on canvas. The final piece reveals itself in an intuitive manner never to be recreated. Isolating the process and end product is one of kind, capturing the moment making it permanent. Memories, emotions and ideas are processed by experimenting with mixed mediums allowing the experience to just happen. It is all created by chance and feeling, there is nothing forced or planned, it naturally evolves as it should in its own time effortlessly. I remain open to the possibility of what can be, always in child like wonder and inspired by nature. I create my art the way I live my life. The outcome is a multi layered, rich, captivating surface that draws you in as you discover various subtleties throughout, evoking curiosity to what lies beneath."
Joanna Cutri, 2008
Joanna explains her 'Lacuna' series.
The definition of 'Lacuna' = A gap or missing part
"My current series is an exploration of the perception of memories of romantic love, fate and learning in relationships and life, what we choose to keep or let go of and the possibility of selectively erasing memories in our lifetime."
"Memory is mutable, the process of remembering is an act of re-creation. Memories are intimately tied to emotion and physical sensation as much as story and image; A parable on the futility of trying to escape the past. The process of attempting to forget has deleted the story but not the emotions or complexities of memory, love, desire, and disappointment as well as the emotional upheavals of love and loss."
"Our lives become a time line in history. What if we could remove “bars/strips/pieces/episodes/isolated moments” of that timeline; that landscape of our life? Delete those specific instances, those pivotal life changing times that mark our past and who we are, the experiences that define us, that change us forever, incidences in time that scar us, leave us damaged, raw, fragile and broken- erase them, blur them out and fade them into the background? What would we keep? What would we choose to discard if we could? Often within us is a bank of memories that we would like to forget, memories we choose not want to indulge in or be reminded of, memories we would like to erase and remove from our consciousness and our personal biography. No matter what, there is still residue, shadow and a faint semblance of what lies beneath. It all makes up the surface of the finished piece. Memory is fallible and frequently wrong and painful, but it's all we have. The mutability and error in memory is how we learn. We highlight what is important to us, and blur out the rest."
"The process of art- the act of making paintings is cathartic to me. All of my life’s experiences and everything that inspires me, moves me and affects me reveals itself in my work. The paintings become landscapes of my life. There is no plan, nothing is premeditated or designed. It all manifests as it should, as I feel intuitively, spirit moves thru me and the end result is nothing I ever imagined."
The definition of 'Lacuna' = A gap or missing part
"My current series is an exploration of the perception of memories of romantic love, fate and learning in relationships and life, what we choose to keep or let go of and the possibility of selectively erasing memories in our lifetime."
"Memory is mutable, the process of remembering is an act of re-creation. Memories are intimately tied to emotion and physical sensation as much as story and image; A parable on the futility of trying to escape the past. The process of attempting to forget has deleted the story but not the emotions or complexities of memory, love, desire, and disappointment as well as the emotional upheavals of love and loss."
"Our lives become a time line in history. What if we could remove “bars/strips/pieces/episodes/isolated moments” of that timeline; that landscape of our life? Delete those specific instances, those pivotal life changing times that mark our past and who we are, the experiences that define us, that change us forever, incidences in time that scar us, leave us damaged, raw, fragile and broken- erase them, blur them out and fade them into the background? What would we keep? What would we choose to discard if we could? Often within us is a bank of memories that we would like to forget, memories we choose not want to indulge in or be reminded of, memories we would like to erase and remove from our consciousness and our personal biography. No matter what, there is still residue, shadow and a faint semblance of what lies beneath. It all makes up the surface of the finished piece. Memory is fallible and frequently wrong and painful, but it's all we have. The mutability and error in memory is how we learn. We highlight what is important to us, and blur out the rest."
"The process of art- the act of making paintings is cathartic to me. All of my life’s experiences and everything that inspires me, moves me and affects me reveals itself in my work. The paintings become landscapes of my life. There is no plan, nothing is premeditated or designed. It all manifests as it should, as I feel intuitively, spirit moves thru me and the end result is nothing I ever imagined."
Curriculum vitae
Education
2005 The Arts Student League, New York, New York
1998 Bachelors of Fine Arts, Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
1996 University of Georgia Studies Abroad Program, Cortona, Italy
1994-1996 Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
1993 Visual Arts Diploma, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, Los Angeles, CA
Professional Experience
2001 Printmaking Studio Professor’s Assistant, Pasadena City College, Pasadena, CA
2000 Gallery Assistant, Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1995-1996 Gallery Assistant, Folk Tree Collection, Pasadena, CA
Exhibitions
2012 Fashion’s Night Out, Neiman Marcus, Dallas, Texas, USA
2012 DIFFA, Dallas, Texas, USA
2012 The Marcus Room, Neiman Marcus, Dallas, Texas, USA
2012 Grand Provence Estate Gallery, Western Cape, South Africa
2011 9/11 Memorial Museum, Online Gallery
2011 Naka Contemporary Art, Bali, Indonesia
2011 Art 47, Durban, South Africa
2011 VanOver Fine Arts, New York USA
2011 Manyung Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2010 Sentosa, Bali, Indonesia
2010 Nexus Modern Art Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2010 Ganesha Gallery, Four Seasons Resort, Bali, Indonesia
2009 Deefusion, Bali, Indonesia
2008 The Layar, Bali Indonesia
2008 Folk Tree Collection, Pasadena, CA
2008 Conrad Bali Resort and Spa, Bali Indonesia
2007 Warisan, Los Angeles, CA
2005 Portal Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2004 Krause Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2003 The Wehr Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2000 Pasadena Arts Council Gallery, Pasadena, CA
1998 Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
1997 Erector Square Gallery, New Haven CT
1996 Folk Tree Collection, Pasadena, CA
Scholarships and Honors
1996 Art History Professor’s Assistantship Scholarship, UGA Cortona, Italy
1994-1995 Art History Professor’s Assistantship, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH
1994 Presidential Scholarship, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH
1993 California Scholarship Federation Honors, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, Los Angeles, CA
Collections
Sentosa Villas, Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia
Pandawas Villas, Ubud, Bali Indonesia
Sharon Van Cleave, Dallas, TX
Charles D. and Carolyn Miller, Pasadena, CA
Anna Christou and David Mariani, Melbourne, Australia
The Gene Autry Museum, Los Angeles, CA
