Joan Livingstone

Joan Livingstone (born 1948) is an American contemporary artist, educator, curator, and author based in Chicago. She creates sculptural objects, installations, prints, and collages that reference the human body and bodily experience.

Education Livingstone earned a bachelor of arts degree from Portland State University in 1972, followed by a master of fine arts degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art. She was a stage and graphic designer at the Portland Shakespeare Company from 1969 to 1972. In her early work, she often used suture-stitch to create visceral forms out of industrial felt that she then hardened with epoxy resins. Her more recent work incorporates found objects, metallic leaf, and hand-made paper. Her later fiber arts work was larger in scale and took on more conceptual meaning.

Livingstone has held solo exhibitions at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Alfred University. Her work is held in the permanent collections of:

The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois Boise Museum of Art, Idaho Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Dennos Museum Center, Traverse City, Michigan Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York Northern Illinois University Art Museum, DeKalb, Illinois Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon Robert L. Pfannebecker Collection, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Livingstone has received a number of awards for her work, including:

Chairman's Award, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2014) American Craft Council Fellowship (2001)

Writer In 2007, Livingstone, with John Ploof, co-edited an anthology, The Object of Labor: Art, Cloth, and Cultural Production. The book includes essays and artist pages examining the effect of globalization on practices and depictions of labor in the arts through the lens of textile production.

Select exhibitions 2015

"Oddments," John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI "marvels and oddment(s)," Clough-Hanson Gallery, Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee

2006-7

“Joan Livingstone: Membranes, Margins, Disruptions,” traveling exhibition, Fosdick Nelson Gallery, Alfred University, NY; Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery, Bowling Green State University, Ohio; Jack Olson Gallery, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL

2005

“Re/Locations,” MNGallery, Chicago, IL

2004

"Migrations," Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR

2002

"Visual Perspectives: 14 Years of the Virginia A. Groot Awards," Groot Foundation Space, Chicago "In the Material World," Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL (4 One Person Exhibitions)

2000

"Jane Lackey, Joan Livingstone," Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

1999

"Embodiment," Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR

1998

"Limits of Capacity," Dennos Museum Center, Traverse City, MI "Sum Greater Than the Parts: Contemporary Sculpture," Rockford Museum of Art, Rockford, IL

1997

"resistSTANCES," Sybaris Gallery, Royal Oak, MI (also 1994, 1992) "Joan Livingstone: Sculpture, Prints and Collages, 1990-1997," Jack Olson Gallery, NIU Art Museum, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL "Assemblage," Center Galleries, Center for Creative Studies, Detroit

1996

"Collages, Prints, Sculpture," Cabell Center for the Arts, The Catlin Gable School, Portland, OR

1995

"Sculpture," Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR "Chicago Prints," Shinsegae Gallery, Seoul, Korea (catalog)

1992

"Organic Sensibilities," The Center Galleries, Center for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI "Few and Far Between," Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL

1990

"Joan Livingstone: New Sculpture," Artemisia Gallery, Chicago (Also 1988)

1985

"Sculpture Textile," 12th Biennale Internationale de la Tapissierie, Musee Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Palais de Rumine, Lausanne, Switzerland 1984 "American Fiber: A New Aesthetic, Diverse Works," Houston, TX

1982

"Dimensions: Felt," Charles and Emma Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA

Publications 2015

Susan Snodgrass, “Toward Textiles,” Textile: Cloth and Culture, Vol. 13, Issue 3, pp. 306–313 . Joel Parsons, marvels & oddment, Clough-Hanson Gallery, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN (exhibition catalog). Eileen Townsend, Joan Livingstone's “Marvels and Oddments,” Memphis Flyer, November 23, 2015. Karen Patterson, “Joan Livingstone: Oddment,” Toward Textiles (on-line catalog ), John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI.

2011

Nadine Fiedler, “Joan Livingstone: Artist and Art Educator,” The Caller, Summer, Portland, OR.

2010

Janet Koplos, Bruce Metcalf, eds., Makers, Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, pp, 428-429.

2008

Polly Ulrich, “Corporeal Dynamics,” Surface Design Journal, Vol. 32, No. 2, Winter, pp. 26–31.

2007

Joan Livingstone, John Ploof, eds., The Object of Labor: Critical Perspectives on Art, Cloth, and Cultural Production, Boston: MIT and Chicago: SAIC Press. Grace Glueck, “Fun with Studio Crafts: When the traditional gets quirky,” New York Times Art Review, Friday, January 12, 2007. Mary Gustaitis-Beyer, “Turning Home at Trackhouse,” ArtBlog, June. Shannon Stratton, “Migrations,” Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR.

2006

Membranes•Margins•Disruptions (exhibition catalog: essays by Judith Leemann, Shannon Stratton; Sharon McConnell, curator), Alfred, NY: Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, School of Art and Design, Alfred University.

2003

Victor Cassidy, “Focus: Joan Livingstone,” Sculpture Magazine, April. Sunita Patterson. “Is Fiber’s Foundation Firm?” Fiberarts Magazine, Vol. 30, No. 2, Sept/Oct.

2002

Gerry Craig, James Elkins, James Yood, Portfolio Collection Vol 10: Joan Livingstone, Winchester, England: Telos Art Publishing. John Brunetti, In The Material World, exhibition catalog, Evanston Art Center, IL.

2001

Otto G. Ocvrik ... [et al.], Art Fundamentals: Theory & Practice, Ninth Edition (NY:McGraw-Hill) p. 224 Ruth Lopez, “Livingstone’s Body of Work,” Chicago Tribune, December 30 .

2000

Jenni Sorkin, “Jane Lackey/Joan Livingstone,” New Art Examiner.

1999

James Elkins, Pictures of the Body: Pain and Metamorphosis, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 148–149.

1998

Gerry Craig, “Reviews: Joan Livingstone,” Sculpture, Vol. 17, No. 7, September. Jaqueline Shinners, Limits of Capacity, exhibition catalog, Dennos Museum Center, Traverse City, MI. Gerry Craig, “Reviews: resistSTANCEs,” Fiberarts Magazine, Vol. 25, No. 1, Summer. Mark Newport, “The Masculine in Fiber,” Surface Design Journal, Vol. 22, No. 3, Spring.

1997

Joyce Fernandes, Joan Livingstone, exhibition catalog, Northern Illinois University Art Museum, DeKalb, IL.

1996

Joan Livingstone and Anne Wilson, The Presence of Touch, exhibition catalog, SAIC Galleries, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL.

1995

Gerry Craig, “Imagination and Sensation,” Fiberarts Magazine, Vol. 22, No. 3, Nov/Dec. Mark Newport, “Points of View,” Fiberarts Magazine, Vol. 21, No. 4, Jan/Feb.

1994

Layne Goldsmith, “On Marking Progress in Creative Discovery,” Surface Design Journal, Vol 19, No 1 Fall. Sandy Harthorn, Fabricated Nature, exhibition catalog, Boise Museum of Art, ID.

1993

James Yood, “A Sequence of Forms,” The New Art Examiner. Elizabeth Broadrup, “Re-envisioning Craft,” Macquette, International Sculpture Center, November.

1992

John Brunetti, “Joan Livingstone,” The New Art Examiner, December. Alice Thorson, “Modern concerns inspire dramatic modern sculpture,” The Kansas City Star Sunday Art Section, February 9. Margo (Shermeta) Mensing, International Contemporary Fiber Art: Now, exhibition catalog, Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, South Korea. W. Logan Fry, “Multiple Directions: Contemporary Works in Felt,” Fiberarts Magazine, March/April.

1991

Kathryn Hixson, “Chicago in Review: Joan Livingstone,” Arts Magazine, February. Margo Shermeta, “Contemporary Sculpture: A Question of Elegance,” Fiberarts Magazine, Vol 18, No 1. Carol Dickinson, “Crossovers: Exploiting the Possibilities,” Fiberarts Magazine, Summer. Pamela Scheinman, “New Ends: The Medium as Message,” Fiberarts Magazine.

1990

Buzz Spector, “Chicago: Joan Livingstone,” Art Issues, #15.

1989

Devin Golden, “Armor,” The New Art Examiner, September.

1988

David McCracken, “Gallery Scene: Expression is fiber artists’ common thread,” The Chicago Tribune Friday Section, July 29. Jeff Abell, “Imagining Form,” The New Art Examiner, Vol 15, No 7, April.

1985

Diane and Elmer Taylor, “Twelfth International Biennial of Tapestry,” Fiberarts Magazine, Nov/Dec.

1981

Jack Larsen and Mildred Constantine, editors. The Art Fabric: Mainstream, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

1980

Winifred Lutz, “Felting,” American Craft Magazine, Aug/Sept, cover, pp 2–9. Patricia Malarcher, “Joan Livingstone,” Fiberarts Magazine, July/Aug. March. Beverly Gordon, Feltmaking, New York: Watson-Guptill Publications. Victoria Kirsch Melcher, “Kansas City: Sunspots and Night Ladders,” Art News, Nov. Donald Hoffman, “Symbolic Emblems Luminous,” The Kansas City Star, Feb. 17.