Artist Joan Hanley
Joan Hanley is an American artist raised in Queens, NY. Born the daughter and granddaughter of NYC firefighters, Hanley’s professional career began in 1980 when renowned artist Alice Neel juried Hanley into her first exhibition.
She continued painting through a series of professions: artist at the Village Voice, Art Director at Columbia University, Outward Bound Instructor and Archetypal Arts Therapist. While raising two children with author Thomas Moore. A yogi, she published a book, Art & Yoga, under her spiritual name, Hari Kirin and led workshops across the US, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan and England.
Hanley has exhibited at the Brattleboro Museum, University of Massachusetts Amherst Fine Arts Center, Fitchburg Museum, Attleboro Museum and Manninen Center for the Arts at Endicott College. Her work is available through the Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson, NY.
In 2025 Artsy featured her painting Plato’s Cave on digital billboards in New York City and transit systems throughout the country.
Today, Hanley’s studio sits at the foot of Mt Monadnock in New Hampshire and the nature surrounding her features heavily in her work and environmental lens. Forty six years after that first exhibit the paintings still evoke psychologically charged figures and primarily depict her family and most intimate relationships.
"I paint daily life from a holistic point of view that includes the psychoanalytic and imaginal. My paintings of figures, light, animals and plants include unseen, felt presences. As lifelong yogi, I perceive bodies as forms of both individual and collective psyche. I’m interested in how this moment contains the past and the timeless. My process is akin to dreaming, a journey I go on with each work that continues in the mind, eye and heart of the viewer."
Tell us a little about yourself (where you are from) and your background in the arts.
I'm from Queens, NYC the daughter and grandaughter of fire fighters. I have always been a painter. Art major in highschool. High school was also where I learned to meditate which has always been a part of my art practice. BFA, MFA and a MA in Creative Arts Therapy.
I have taught college level and Master's level and also taught Art & Yoga together at retreat centers around the world.
What kind of work are you currently making?
I am painting Acrylic paint on raw linen. My subjects are my loves but the paintings go beyond the personal to the mythic and magical.
What is a day like in the studio for you?
I walk across the field, say hello to the mountain and do what ever moves me.
What are you looking at right now and/or reading?
I am reading a wonderful little book that I got at the Frick a couple of weeks ago: Holbein’s Sir Thomas More is a 2018 book by Hilary Mantel and Xavier F. Salomon. I'm also reading my husband's new book, Cure at Walden Pond which came out last month.
Where can we find more of your work? (ex. website/insta/gallery/upcoming shows)
Website: https://hanleystudio.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hanleystudio/
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