Born in California’s San Joaquin Valley and later raised in Napa’s wine country, Joan Konkel is a
Washington, D.C.-based artist whose work explores the intersection of materiality, light, and
transformation.
Konkel holds a BFA from San Francisco College for Women and an MFA in Sculpture from
George Washington University. Her creative path has evolved from fashion design to wood and
stone carving, eventually leading to her distinctive practice of layering mesh, canvas, paint, and
aluminum sheet metal. These industrial and traditional materials are manipulated to create
shimmering, dimensional surfaces that respond dynamically to light and movement.
Her work has been widely exhibited in galleries across the United States as well as the U.S.
ambassadorial residences in Paris, France, and Tirana, Albania through the U.S. State
Department’s Art in Embassies Program. Konkel’s work is included in the permanent collections
of the Museum of Art in DeLand, Florida; the Polk Museum at Florida Southern College; the
Golisano Children’s Museum in Naples, Florida, and in numerous private and corporate
collections nationally and abroad.
A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and the Anni Albers Designer
Award, Konkel draws inspiration from Constructivism, Minimalism, and Abstract Art. The
Washington Post’s art critic Mark Jenkins described her work as “hymns to ephemerality and
change.”
Her life and artistic vision have been shaped by early world travels with her grandmother, as well
as by living in Aix-en-Provence, France—the city of Paul Cézanne—and Santiago, Chile.