About

Joyce Polance is a painter working in oils.

Polance was born in New York City in 1965. She attended Wesleyan University and received a BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She has exhibited internationally and has work in many private and corporate collections. Polance is represented by Judy Ferrara Gallery in Three Oaks, MI. She may also be contacted directly for the purchase of paintings.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

For years, I’ve been pulled into the restless spaces between abstraction and representation, figures and landscape. I’ve often turned my canvases upside-down as I've worked - frequently destroying surfaces I've just painted—to create chaos through color, texture, and movement as a reflection of my anxious mind. Then, in 2023, I found myself entering a different state of being which arose through a move from Chicago to Upstate New York, and a new series revealed itself to me: portraits of my therapist. I’m painting these entirely with my fingers.

This current body of work flips the traditional theme of the male gaze that has been prevalent throughout art history. I’ve chosen to portray a male muse rather than a female, and I am not attempting to render my subject as “classically beautiful,” but rather as a relatable figure of genuineness and warmth. Additionally, I am flipping the traditional patient/therapist gaze as I, the patient, explore the personality of my therapist. I employ different stylistic approaches in every piece to depict varying aspects of his character and my ever-evolving experience of him.

While I continue to incorporate many of the aforementioned painting processes, I have developed new languages and textures with my fingers that I haven’t seen in painting before. I apply paint with both fingers and fingernails (through tight surgical gloves) and mix it into wet paint and remove the excess with other fingers without breaking my state of hyperfocus (this is also a useful adaptation for my ADHD brain). When the paint dries, I rub paint over the ridges with the pads of my fingers to add more layers of color while still exposing the paint below. The tactile nature of this painting process echoes, for me, the personal connections of therapy.

These pieces are less tumultuous than my other recent work. Indeed, when I attempt to move away from authentic representation of my subject, my hands bring me back to it – an indication that instead of being fueled by anxiety, I am painting with love.