Joel Greene

"In 1971, when Joel Greene was finishing high school and considering his next step, his father wrote a letter to the Smithsonian Institution, which not long before had begun publishing its flagship magazine. The elder Greene approached the venerable organization for an opinion on which state universities and colleges had the best art departments. The move was a way of satisfying both father and son-- the father wanting a practical, well-rounded education for his offspring, and the son just interested in art. This approach reveals qualities that seem to have been passed down through the Greene family genes: an effective blend of imaginative spunk and methodical order, of pragmatism and passion...

Through his paintings and prints, Joel Greene ...maintains a conversation, a lively exchange with the great Modernists of the past. With the New Mexico landscape permeating his experience, this dialogue echoes especially the artistic voices of New Mexico Modernists of the early 20th century, such as Andrew Dasburg, Josef Bakos, and Marsden Hartley. Yet Joel's contribution to the conversation is uniquely his own. As his work has evolved over the years, he has refined a visual vocabulary of swirling shapes and volumetric forms that seem to define the essence of this place and its topography, vegetation, and weather, allowing the viewer to take part in the exchange in an ongoing way. As Ernesto Mayans puts it, 'In changing the reality of painting, Joel Greene is also changing our perception of reality.'"

-Gussie Fauntleroy, author of Joel Greene: New Mexico Modernist, NM Magazine Artist Series

Joel Greene was born in Denver in 1953 and raised in Las Vegas, NM. He holds an MFA from the University of Iowa, where he studied under Mauricio Lasansky. His work is in the following collections: Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe; Harwood Foundation, Taos; Roswell Museum and Fine Art Center, Roswell; UNM Museum, Albuquerque; Highlands University Library, Las Vegas, NM; Arizona State University, Tempe; and University of West Virginia Fine Arts Museum, Morgantown.