Artist Statement

Joan Clarkin Konuk (b. 1963) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Boston, MA. Often working with watercolor, she approaches painting by questioning the boundaries between abstraction and figuration. Utilizing the grid as a methodology for interrogating rigid structures within contemporary art, these works are reminiscent of a painter’s palette. Rather than perpetuate this rigidity, however, they question established systems of order within the everyday - structures begin to dissolve, the logic of space becomes fragmented, almost fluid through the use of watery pigment. Exploring the intersections of identity, representation, and materiality, Joan Konuk’s paintings and self-portraiture reflect a quiet embodiment, both atmospheric in their textures and surreal in their kaleidoscopic visual language. 

About

Joan Konuk has lived in Massachusetts for nearly her whole life: growing up in Ipswich, raising her three children in Carlisle, and moving to Boston with her husband in 2021. A lover of fresh air, water, and trees, Joan is often in nature. Her work depicts familiar elements of Massachusetts landscapes, such as the craggy, blue coast of the Northshore, icy puddles of frozen leaves and mud, or the soft, pale clouds of winter sunrises.

A lifelong reader, Joan also takes inspiration from books. Her paintings include themes from Ishmeal’s narration of the white sperm whale Moby Dick to Elizabeth Bennet’s prideful romping through English countryside.

Her artwork, thoughtful and reflective, as well as vivid and bold, tells a story of nature, exploration, and beauty. Today, Joan Konuk paints from her treehouse studio in Boston with her three cats underfoot.