PHOTO: Joan Lyon

Joan Lyons is a pioneering feminist artist and one of the great unsung artists of her generation. Her groundbreaking work freely combines feminist theory and personal experience. Her work is intimate and introspective, questioning the indexical quality of photography. Lyons’ work defies every artistic taboo of the 1950s.  She had been taught that contemporary art should be universal, gestural, abstract, monumental, qualities which are inherently masculine. After trying and failing to follow these mandates, Lyons’ realized that her work could not be separated from her own experiences as a woman. Her personal narrative, different in content and tone from the dominant male voice, pushed her to establish new artistic structures.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Stephen Bulger Gallery Archive

Joan Lyons  presents a solo exhibition featuring examples of work made over six decades. Since the 1960s, Lyons has been a key figure and influence in the photography scene in Rochester, New York. Working in printmaking, photography, and artists’ books, she creates innovative work that incorporates both historical and contemporary processes. Her fascination with the people and objects that surround her, along with her desire to challenge the influence of traditional photography through a feminist lens result in Lyons drawing her private life into her artistic practice. Her artwork moves well beyond the Black & White printing that once dominated the photographic academy.

The exhibition features work from ten of Lyons’ key photographic projects and a wide range of media, including antiquated photographic processes, photograms, offset lithography, photo-quilt making, pinhole photography, xerography, screen printing, and digital prints. Her technical skill enables her to develop complex processes using a variety of optical devices and print techniques.

In a 1982 artist statement, Lyons wrote: “I work through complexity to something simple and direct. This distillation process becomes more evident as time goes on. I work at those things that are evident; how I see, not conventions of seeing.”

The exhibition include seminal work from over fifty years of artistic production, including “Untitled (bedspread)” (1969); “Prom (19750, “Women’s Portrait Series” (1974–1979); the portfolio “Presences” (1980); “Happy Birthday” (August 1986); “Domestic Accumulation” (2016–2025); and “Land(landscape)scapes” (2010– 2020).

In addition to her artistic practice, Lyons was the Founding Director of the influential Visual Studies Workshop Press (1972–2004). Under her leadership, VSW Press played a central role in the evolution and definition of the field of artist’s books over the past six decades, publishing more than 450 titles. Lyons is the editor of the highly influential Artist’s Books: “A Critical Anthology and Sourcebook” (1986, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1995), as well as the annotated bibliography “Artist’s Books: Visual Studies Workshop Press, 1972– 2008.

Photo left: Joan Lyons, Untitled, 1970s, Haloid transfer, 19 x 26 inch (48.26 x 66.04 cm), © Joan Lyons, Courtesy the artist and Stephen Bulger Gallery. Photo right: Joan Lyons, Untitled (from the Artifacts Portfolio), 1973, Signed, dated, and editioned, in pencil, au recto, Signed, au verso, Printed in 1974, Offset lithograph, 19 x 25 inch (48.26 x 63.50 cm), © Joan Lyons, Courtesy the artist and Stephen Bulger Gallery

Info: Stephen Bulger Gallery, 1356 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON, Canada, Duration: 10/1-28/2/2025, Days  & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-18:00, www.bulgergallery.com/