Joyce Neimanas

(American, b. 1944)

Hairbrushes, 2002

Heroicomic, 1993

An example of a comic-book figure ironically standing in for a contemporary woman, the flying heroine in Heroicomic’s lower left panel states: “I dance topless in the worst part of New York City! I know how to defend myself!”

Joyce Neimanas’s digitally created montages of recognizable styles and signs suggest the ludicrous and the burlesque. Heroicomic is Neimanas’s personal fiction written with information garnered from the imagery of advertising, art history, and pop culture.

For many years Joyce Neimanas has experimented without a camera. Her computer-generated images use advertisements, art reproductions, and comic books to create humorous collages that explore contemporary gender roles. Born in 1944, Neimanas received her BAE and MFA degrees in 1966 and 1969 respectively from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, where she is currently a professor. Neimanas is represented in many major collections and has received numerous awards, including a National Endowment of the Arts Visual Artists Fellowship and an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship. Since 1966 her work has been exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions worldwide, including at the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson; The Center for Photography at Woodstock, New York; the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans; and Presentation House, Vancouver. Joyce Neimanas (1984) was published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Center of Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson.

View all works by Joyce Neimanas in our collection.