BIO
JOANNA CUTRI is a Los Angeles-born visual artist whose life and work have been shaped by an international perspective, cultural immersion, and an enduring curiosity about the world around her.
She creates layered, atmospheric compositions that move between abstraction and figuration. Translucent washes, textured surfaces, fluid forms, and intuitive mark-making come together in a visual language that is both contemplative and deeply personal. Often rendered in muted, monochromatic palettes, her paintings range from intimate studies to expansive panels spanning up to seven feet.
Her work explores memory, impermanence, femininity, and the subtleties of human experience, often through a quiet dialogue between the natural world and the figure. Drawn to the ephemeral qualities of light, organic forms, and the passage of time, Joanna creates compositions that balance delicacy with depth, restraint with movement, and the recognizable with the abstract. There is a poetic stillness to her work, inviting a slower way of looking and revealing itself through layers, gestures, and traces.
Joanna's artistic perspective has been shaped by a life lived across continents. She spent a decade living and working in Bali, Indonesia, where the island's spiritual traditions and cultural richness left a lasting influence on her outlook on life. Her international experiences also took her to China's Zhangjiajie Mountains through an artist residency with the Hong Kong-based Nock Art Foundation, and to Biarritz along the French Basque coast, where she lived. Together with earlier studies in Cortona, Italy, these experiences further shaped her sensitivity to landscape, culture, and the transformative qualities of place.These experiences continue to find their way into her work, not as literal depictions, but as impressions, textures, and sensibilities.
Joanna holds a BFA from the University of Georgia, where she also studied abroad in Cortona, Italy. After several years in New York City, she now lives and works in Southern California. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout Southeast Asia, Australia, South Africa, the United States, and Europe, and is held in private and institutional collections internationally. Beyond traditional gallery spaces, her paintings have been featured in luxury interiors, high-end design projects, and hospitality environments, reflecting an ongoing dialogue between art, design, and the experience of place.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My paintings are autobiographical, a visual narrative of lived experiences, memories, emotions, and the imprints of time. Through layers of mixed media, textures, gestures, and fluid forms, I build surfaces that reveal and conceal, inviting curiosity about what lies beneath.
My process is intuitive and exploratory, moving between intention and chance, abstraction and figuration. I allow materials to interact, marks to evolve, and unexpected discoveries to guide the work. Rather than beginning with a fixed outcome, I follow each painting as it unfolds, allowing it to find its own sense of resolution.
I am drawn to the traces that life leaves behind: fragments of memory, fleeting moments, emotional landscapes, and the quiet relationship between the human experience and the natural world. These impressions find their way into my work through layers, movement, and the interplay of form and space.
I create much as I live, remaining open to possibility, change, and the unexpected. The act of painting is both cathartic and meditative, an ongoing process of discovery and transformation.
CV
Born: Pasadena, CA
Exhibitions:
2025 Magnolia solo exhibition,Third&Cove Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
2025 Hampton Designer Showcase House, Southampton, NY
2025 Legends, Design LA, Collective Form, Los Angeles, CA
2024 L'image Art Exhibition, Santa Barbara, CA
2023 San Diego Design Expo, San Diego, CA
2022 River North Design District Gallery Walk, Daniel Kinkade Fine Art, Chicago, IL
2022 Seasons of Heaven, joint exhibition, Chateau Charleval, Provence, France
2021 Fog Shades solo exhibition, Esqueleto, San Diego, CA
2020 Pop-Up group exhibition, Adore Gallery at The Forum, Carlsbad, CA
2019 New Emerging Art group exhibition, L & G Projects Art Gallery, La Jolla, CA
2018 Arts Gowanus Open Studios, Lumena, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Indigo Girls solo exhibition, Gallery Des Artistes Art Gallery, New Hope, PA
2016 Musee Asiatica group exhibition, Biarritz, France
2015 The Zhang Jia Jie Collection solo exhibition, Ping On Lane, Hong Kong
2014 Artist in Residency group exhibition, The Nock Art Foundation, Hong Kong
2013 Hexagon solo exhibition, Taksu Gallery/ W Hotel, Bali, Indonesia
2012 DIFFA group exhibition, Dallas, TX
2012 Joanna Cutri solo exhibition, Grand Provence Estate Gallery, Western Cape, South Africa
2011 An Ambitious Project is Brewing group exhibition, Naka Contemporary Art Gallery, Bali, Indonesia
2011 I am Anonymous solo exhibition, VanOver Fine Arts Gallery, Springville, NY
2011 Lacuna solo exhibition, Manyung Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2010 True Self group exhibition, Nexus Modern Art Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2010 Beauty in Impermanence solo exhibition, Ganesha Gallery, Four Seasons Resort, Bali, Indonesia
2009 City Scapes solo exhibition, Deefusion Gallery, Bali, Indonesia
2008 Hearts and Flowers group exhibition, Folk Tree Collection, Pasadena, CA
2008 Landscapes of My Life solo exhibition, Conrad Bali Resort and Spa, Bali, Indonesia
Private Collections:
Chateau Charleval, Provence, France
The Gene Autry Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Sentosa Villas, Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia
Pandawas Villas, Ubud, Bali Indonesia
Residency Programs:
2014 The Nock Art Foundation, Hong Kong and Hunan, China
Education:
2005 The Arts Student League, New York, NY
1998 Bachelors of Fine Arts, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
1996 University of Georgia Studies Abroad Program, Cortona, Italy
1994-1996 Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH
1993 Visual Arts Diploma, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, Los Angeles, CA