JOAN BANKEMPER

Flora and Fauna in Flux

December 9, 2021 - January 22, 2022

Joan Bankemper at Nancy Hoffman Gallery

Flora and Fauna in Flux

On December 9, 2021 an exhibition of new work entitled “Flora and Fauna in Flux” by Joan Bankemper opens at Nancy Hoffman, continuing through January 22, 2022. The artist began this series at the start of the pandemic with ink drawings, on pages from her daily journal (written in isolation) that she calls her “Pod Series.” The drawings began at an intimate scale of 22 x 17 inches and blossomed into a larger, bolder format approximately 44 x 32 inches. Pod is a word with many meanings: it is an elongated seed encased in an outer shell; it is a protective container; or a small, designated group of people. As the Covid crisis began we were all advised to isolate at home, or to stay within a limited “pod” of people we could trust to be safe. Thus, the “Pod “ is a vital element of Flora and Fauna in Flux. The flower is a recurring image in this series, as is the maze. The flower is about rebirth, nature, and the artist’s flourishing garden on the farm where she lives. The maze represents the days and months of the pandemic, finding a way out. The use of black and white ink represents for the artist what we were and are all missing during the Covid crisis, the colors of life.

Her new ceramic sculptures in black and white are in dialogue with the drawings, round plate-like forms are glazed with bold black lines: flowers, circles, cross hatch, mazes and more. These sculptures are a love letter to the rapidly changing environment. The absence of color is a memorial to species and habitats that are in flux due to the changing climate. Hand-built morning glories are white striped in black. Fantasies abound in these sculptures in clay. Hidden among the flowers are the artist’s signature birds and bees. Caterpillars painted with stripes not unlike the morning glories, also garnished with spots and dots are happy little creatures, symbols of transformation. Bankemper’s glazing of her ceramics calls to mind Cecil Beaton’s black and white costumes in the Ascot scene of My fair Lady, the whimsy, the over-the-topness of dress, the joy of life expressed in couture. Bankemper manifests that same joy in her sculpture; there is a formality to the work that contrasts with the informality and directness of the drawings. There is a sense of humor and irony in these poignant works.

One of the ceramics has hundreds of tiny white piggy banks embedded in its core. It is a repetitive pattern, the banks almost too small to use for special pennies. Each little piggy bank has a name on it in perfect tidy lettering: Lindsay, Travis, Jill, Heather, etc. The repetitive, almost hypnotic pattern captivates and draws one in to view up close the details, the names, the tiny eyes that punctuate the object. For years Bankemper’s mother worked in a hospital thrift store in Covington, Kentucky, the point of origin of the pigs. These pigs were considered good luck charms for children who went into the hospital for operations. Tradition has it that a penny be placed in the bank for good luck for the operation. The last time the artist saw her mom, one of her sisters gave her piles of little pigs, saying “you can use these some day.” It took the pandemic and climate change to arrive at an ideal time for the pigs’use. The story behind this piece makes it that much more powerful. It is whimsical, and yet, contains within it the wish to come through to the other side of the pandemic. It is about life and death.

Like her sculptures of the past decade, Bankemper hand builds most of the objects affixed to a central core and uniquely glazes each piece. Some of the objects like the birds are cast and then uniquely glazed. After 25 years as a conceptual artist who created healing gardens all over the country, Bankemper brought her gardens inside in the form of sculptural objects 15 years ago. For the first time she has created a body of work eschewing color, focusing on form in black and white. While the drawings evoke the artist’s personal pod, the ceramic sculptures reach beyond to the garden to the universal to rebirth and new growth.

Joan Bankemper was born in Covington, Kentucky in 1959. She received a B.F.A. from Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri and an M.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Mount Royal Graduate School, Baltimore. She also attended Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights and the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The George Sugarman Foundation, California, the North Carolina Arts Council and the Council on the Environment, New York.

The artist resides in Warwick, New York and New York City.