Joan K. Sharma

Associate Professor

• Phone: 559-278-2707
• Office: Conley Art 223
  
• Email

Joan Sharma received a Master's degree in Painting from Indiana University, Bloomington and a BFA degree in Painting from Temple University's, Tyler School of Art. She has traveled, studied and lived in Europe and India. These experiences have contributed to her understanding of the interconnectedness of our global community. She teaches Interaction of Color, photography and 2D and 3D design in the Department of Art and Design.

Sharma’s oil paintings reflect her passion for color and light. Her luminous abstractions silently resonate as they express natural forces that operate within and around the world of form. Her photographs frame and document her response to the world. The most recent series was taken during a 2006-07-winter study tour of Northern India that she co-directed and a personal trip to Southern India during summer 2007. The “Study Tour of Northern India” was co-sponsored by the College of Arts & Humanities, Office of Continuing and Global Education and the Fresno Art Museum .

In addition to her work in the studio Sharma designed, facilitated and painted a large-scale outdoor mural project with members of the “Village of Hope” community at the Poverello House, Fresno during the summer of 2005. In 2006 she completed a mural for the Fresno County Children’s Mental Health Outpatient Clinic for their waiting/reception area that offered children a more welcoming environment
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Sharma’s work has appeared throughout the United States and internationally in numerous individual, juried, group exhibitions and private and public collections.

Aradhana's Wedding Mehndi

 

Honors and Awards

• 2008: Fresno Board of Supervisors, recognized for community service mural projects.
• 2004: Golda Foundation, Painting Award & Exhibition, Fresno Art Museum, CA
• 2005: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Award
• 2003: Honorable Mention, Open National Juried Show,
  Topanga Canyon Gallery, juror, M.Zakian
• 1990: Price Waterhouse, Paintings purchased for collection
• 1983: Purchase Price, 15th Washington and Jefferson National Painting Show, Phila., PA
• 1981: Painting purchased by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
• 1980: Ford Foundation, Doctoral Grant-in-Aid, Indiana University
• 1980: Scholarship, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, awarded by Indiana University
• 1979: Award, "Outstanding Painter" Edith Weil Hecht,
  selected by the Tyler School of Art, Temple University

Selected Collections

• Price Waterhouse Collection, Philadelphia
• Indianapolis Museum of Art, permanent collection
• Caprofil AG, Zug, Switzerland
• Rene Senn, Baar, Switzerland, Private Collection
• Klazar family, Litomysl, Czech Republic, Private Collection
• Chris T. Martens, Champagne, Illinois, Private Collection
• Kishan Goenka, Oberaegeri, Switzerland, Private Collection
• Lowell, Massachusetts Private Collection
• Osman Unsal, Ankara, Turkey, Private Collection
• Dr. Vijayendra Pratap, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Marylin and Robert Latiak, Malvern, Pennsylvania
• Dorothy Ashman, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania
• Polly Victor, Fresno, CA, Private Collection
• Dr. Karen Coxhead, Portland, Oregon, Private Collection
• Seattle ,WA, Private Collection

Aradhana's Wedding Mehndi, 30"x20", 2009

Mrtyunjaya, 60"x48", 2010

The Field, 49"x31", 2011

Sota, 66"x36", 2011