Joy Broom

Statement

I’m interested in layering, in terms of images, materials and concept. Elements of nature have always been present in my work: seeds, cells, circulatory systems, trees, organs, insects. The work combines for me the beauty of biology with the symmetrical order of icons and altarpieces. I use purified beeswax as a skin, to bind, protect, and vaguely ritualize.  I like that my studio smells like church.

My work has evolved from using specific personal symbols representing my family to combining my biological drawings with actual bits and pieces of old family letters photographs, and scrapbooks. I explore Identity, Memory and History, combining my bio drawings with memorabilia in multi-layered assemblages.

It is my intent that this work has wider historical implications. Dismantling then reassembling, slicing, obscuring surfaces, and eliminating identities shifts these elements from the personal to the universal.

Biography

Joy Broom’s work has been featured in dozens of exhibitions at a wide range of venues. Select Solo Exhibitions include Transmission Gallery, Oakland; the deYoung Museum Kimball Gallery as Artist-in-Residence; the inaugural StartUpArt Fair and StartUp Small Works Art Fair; Stanford Art Spaces; Oakland’s The Rollup Project and Studio Quercus; and 555 California, San Francisco. She recently showed a body of work at Mountain View Performing Center for the Arts and City Hall; for Startup Curatorial at Yorba Winery, Sutter Creek, and a PopUp at Storer studio, Pt. Reyes Station. Two-person exhibitions include N Berkeley Wealth Management and Gear Box Gallery, Oakland, with Marsha Balian; and The Art Cottage, Concord; Off the Preserve, Napa; and A440 Gallery, San Francisco, all with sculptor Jerry Leisure.

Select Group Exhibitions include the the deYoung Open; Triton Museum; Arts Benicia; Site: Brooklyn, NY; Shoebox Projects, LA; SFMOMA Artists Gallery; Transmission and Live Worms Galleries, San Francisco; the Bolinas Museum; Off the Preserve! In Napa; the Berkeley Art Center (Artist of the Month), six themed shows at the Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek; Sonoma Museum of Visual Arts; Seager Gray’s Art of the Book, Mill Valley; Jennifer Perlmutter Gallery, Lafayette, and Gallery Rt. One, Vita Collage and Toby’s in Pt. Reyes Station.

Broom has been a recipient of the WESTAF/NEA Regional Fellowship for Visual Artists for Works on Paper; has been a featured artist on The Studio Work blog. Recently her work was published in the book Artists of the Bay Area by Jen Tough Gallery, Santa Fe; Photo Trouvee Magazine, Humana Obscura, and catalogs for Sasse Museum of Art. chewing gum on wood was hung in the original contemporary Bay Area Collection of the deRosa Preserve complex in Napa. Her work is represented in numerous private and artists’ collections.