Joan Wadleigh Curran

Joan Wadleigh Curran (April 27, 1950 – March 29, 2023)[1] was an American visual artist, painter, and printmaker active in Philadelphia, known primarily for her figurative paintings and drawings in which she addressed the intersection of the natural world and human intervention.

When discussing her own work, the artist explained that painting provided her "with an opportunity to connect to the physical world", allowing her in turn to understand "the relationship between the tangible presence of real objects and their ability to trigger an intangible response".

[4] According to the art critic Adriana Rabinovitch, Curran "anthropomorphizes what we call garbage in a manner that spurs a deeper investigation into the cycle of life of an object".

[2] In 2017, Curran completed a residency at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Umbria, Italy, where she created a series of gouache paintings and drawings inspired by the natural environment and the physical surroundings of the foundation's 15th-century castle, some of which were later exhibited in Curran's solo show titled Instability at InLiquid Gallery in Philadelphia in 2019.

[9] Curran held solo exhibitions at the Lamar Dodd Art Center in LaGrange, West Georgia College (now University of West Georgia) in Carrollton, Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, and Seraphin Gallery in Philadelphia, among other venues in the United States.