Janet Goldner

Biography

Over thirty years as an active artist, I have shown my work in over twenty solo exhibitions, and nearly one hundred group exhibitions throughout the United States, as well as in Lithuania, Germany, Italy, Bosnia, Australia, New Zealand, and Mali. I am the recipient of numerous awards, grants, and artist residencies, including a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship and a grant from the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid. My work has been published in many books, journals, magazines, catalogs and news sources. An artist-scholar, I have curated exhibitions, published articles and catalogs, and lectured at conferences, universities, and community venues. I have also conducted sculpture workshops and community art projects in both the United States and Mali.

Born to a family of political activists, I grew up in Washington, D.C., fully immersed in the social and political issues of the 1960’s. The evolution of my sculpture traces my enduring exploration of sculptural form, my ongoing relationship with African culture, and my lifelong involvement in political activism. My life experiences have played an integral part in the development of my work. This has allowed my work to carry on a unique cohesion where themes recur and overlap, appear and disappear, then reappear in altered form

I first traveled to West Africa in 1973. Since spending eight months in Mali on a Fulbright in 1995, I have been engaged in a dialogue with Malian artists concerning our lives, work, creative process. The combining of Western and non-Western images and ideas are a result of many trips to Africa, as well as a response to my own layered American cultural identity.

Janet Goldner Website