Joy Garnett

{{short description|American painter}}

Joy Amina Garnett (born 1960) is an artist and writer from New York, United States. Trained as a painter, her artwork explores contemporary practices around cultural preservation, alternative histories and archives. Her interdisciplinary work combines creative writing, research and visual media. In her early paintings (1997–2009), Garnett engaged issues around contemporary consumption of media and the distinctions between documentary, technical, and artistic image making.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110711091204/https://www.gfineartdc.com/release.cfm?recordID=20 Brewer, Paul: Curator's Statement.] "Blasts," G Fine Art, Washington, DC, Sept 10 - Oct 22, 2005 Her mature work draws on archival images, alternative histories and the legacy of her maternal grandfather, the Egyptian Romantic poet, bee scientist and polymath Ahmed Zaki Abu Shadi.[http://arablit.org/2013/08/26/15555/ Qualey, Marcia Lynx: "AZ Abushady: Revolutionary Egyptian Poet, Feminist, Beekeeper, and More"]. An interview with artist and writer Joy Garnett.[https://www.ibraaz.org/platforms/6/responses/154 “Joy Garnett: Alone in the Archive,” Ibraaz Platform for discussion 006: What role can the archive play in developing and sustaining a critical and culturally located art history?][https://hyperallergic.com/99261/digitizing-a-beloved-egyptian-scholars-archive/ Heddaya, Mostafa: “Digitizing a Beloved Egyptian Scholar’s Archive,”][https://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2019/02/facts-become-the-enemy-art-and-archives-a-conversation-with-joy-garnett-on-the-bee-kingdom.html Scrima, Andrea: “Facts Become the Enemy: Art and Archives]. A Conversation with Joy Garnett on The Bee Kingdom”. Garnett is married to conceptual photographer and video artist Bill Jones.

Garnett was awarded a writing fellowship at Yaddo in Spring 2024 to work on her family memoir The Bee Kingdom, which was Longlisted for the First Pages Prize in Creative Nonfiction later that year. [https://www.firstpagesprize.com/2024-creative-nonfiction 2024 Longlist, First Pages Prize in Creative Nonfiction]

She was a 2019-20 Shift Artist in Residence at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts.[https://www.projectspace-efanyc.org/current-residents 2019/20 Shift Residents, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space Program] In 2011, she received a joint commission from the Chipstone Foundation and the Milwaukee Art Museum to produce work for the traveling exhibition “The Tool At Hand” (2011–2013).[https://mam.org/info/pressroom/2011/12/chipstone-foundation-opens-the-tool-at-hand/ Chipstone Foundation opens “The Tool at Hand”, Milwaukee Art Museum][https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/article/the-tool-at-hand The Tool at Hand] In 2007, she was an artist in residence at iCommons, Dubrovnik, Croatia,[https://noemalab.eu/memo/the-art-happens-here/ The Art Happens Here] and in 2005, she was an artist in residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.{{Cite web |url=https://atlanticcenterforthearts.org/residencies/mair-residency-history/ |title=Atlantic Center for the Arts (Residency #114, 2005) |access-date=2019-10-20 |archive-date=2018-08-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180820030228/http://atlanticcenterforthearts.org/residencies/mair-residency-history/ |url-status=dead }}

In 2004, Garnett received an Anonymous Was A Woman Award.[http://absolutearts.com/artsnews/2004/12/22/32626.html Anonymous Was A Woman, press release 2004][http://www.anonymouswasawoman.org Anonymous Was A Woman, official site] She has also received grants from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC).[http://www.artnet.com/artists/joy-garnett/biography Joy Garnett bio on artnet]

In 2019, Garnett became the Art Director of the literary magazine Evergreen Review, founded in 1957 by Barney Rosset and re-launched in 2017 by John Oakes.[https://evergreenreview.com Evergreen Review] From 2005 to 2016, she was the Arts Editor at Cultural Politics,[http://www.dukeupress.edu/Catalog/ViewProduct.php?productid=45645 Cultural Politics] a scholarly journal published by Duke University Press that features in each issue an essay written by a visual artist about their work. From 2013 to 2016, she penned "Copy That!", a column on fair use issues in visual art, for Art21 Magazine.[http://magazine.art21.org/author/joy-garnett/ "Copy That!", Art21 Magazine (archive)] She was the founder of NEWSgrist,[https://hyperallergic.com/4181/10-years-of-newsgrist/ 10 Years of Newsgrist: The Interview] an electronic newsletter and art blog (ca. 2000–2017). From 1999 til 2001, she wrote the column "Into Africa" for artnet magazine.[http://www.artnet.com/magazine/reviews/intoafrica.asp "Into Africa" (archive), artnet (1999-2001)]

Controversy surrounding Garnett's 2003 painting "Molotov" drew international scrutiny to issues of authorship, appropriation and fair use in visual art. She lectured[https://process.arts.ac.uk/content/joy-garnett-painting-mass-media/ “Joy Garnett: Painting Mass Media.”] Art and Technology Lecture Series organized by Mark Tribe, September 23, 2004, Columbia University Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CNMTL).[https://archive.org/details/NYIH_Comedies_of_Fair_Use “Comedies of Fair U$e: A Search for Comity in the Intellectual Property Wars,” Organized by Lawrence Lessig and Lawrence Weschler, The New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, 2006.][https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/41042/the-public-domain-annual-theme-for-2006-2007/ “Panel: Open Source on the Line,”] Vera List Center for Art and Politics, The New School for Social Research, 2006.[https://archive.org/details/JoyGarnettCariouvPrincemeetsIronChef-Discussion_CritatPrintedMatter_NYC/ “Cariou v Prince meets Iron Chef,”] Discussion at Printed Matter, NYC, with Greg Allen, Joy Garnett and Chris Habib, Sept 22, 2012.[https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/joy-garnett-panel/id424611105?i=111884189 “The Case for Appropriation,” panel moderated by Joy Garnett – Feb 16, 2012], with Rob Storr (excerpt), Virginia Rutledge + Oliver Wasow, presented by BFA Visual & Critical Studies, School of Visual Arts, NY.[https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/seminars-and-workshops/art-%E2%89%A0-law-creative-responses-intellectual-property-in-21st-century “Art ≠ Law? Creative Responses to Copyright in the Twenty-First Century.”] Radcliffe Institute For Advanced Study, Harvard University, October 2015. and wrote[http://harpers.org/archive/2007/02/0081386 "Portfolio: On the Rights of Molotov Man - Appropriation and the art of context,"] by Joy Garnett and Susan Meiselas. Harper's Magazine (February 2007) [pp.53-58][https://web.archive.org/web/20050422071124/http://www.nyfa.org/level3.asp?id=349&fid=6&sid=17 Garnett, Joy: “In Their Own Words”], NYFA Current, April 2005[http://www.intelligentagent.com/archive/Vol4_No2_ip_garnett.htm Garnett, Joy: “Steal This Look”], Intelligent Agent, Vol.4, no.2 (2004) widely on these topics.