Biographical Sketch

Joanna L. Kao

I live and work in Boston, MA. My parents came to the USA from China in 1935-36 to pursue advanced graduate studies. They met at Columbia University, married, and moved to southern California, where my siblings and I were born. Prolonged world unrest, from World War II through the Cold War, cut us off for many years from extended family and home in China. My truncated bicultural identity has provided over the years not only a lifetime of challenges, but also a rich resource for artistic investigation.

While I taught art at the Winsor School for thirty one years, I also kept alive my passion for creating art, with my interest over the years turning to issues of social justice. My recent retirement has allowed me to move art to the center of my life. I have had solo shows at Jingdezhen Ceramic Arts Institute in Jiangxi, China, the Hankuk Art Museum in YoungIn, South Korea, the Zhejiang Art Academy in Hangzhou, China, and the Public Libraries of Boston and Newton. Most recently, my work was selected for exhibition in "Transplants," a group show at the Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia. I have also shown work in "Progress of the World's Women, Beijing +5," at the UN General Assembly, and group shows at the Kala Institute in Berkeley, CA; the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, school art galleries such as that of UMass Boston, and community art centers.

I curated four exhibitions, including " Engendered Species: the Cultural Context of Gender", " The Quality of Quantity", and "Collateral Damage: When the Battle's Lost and Won". Commentary about my work has appeared in the Boston Globe, Art New England, the Journal of Feminist Studies, Sampan, Bay Windows, the Beverly LaHaye Institute, exhibition catalogs, and other publications.