Joan Key is based in London. She has shown with Richard Salmon, One in the Other and Program galleries in London and with the Bow Arts Trust, Rear Window, Artlab, Peer Trust, and White Window Trust.
She has also worked collaboratively with musicians and composers to create performance scores related to painting, and this has included tape-slide animations and documentation of performance in film.
Work has been shown internationally in exhibitions at Galerie Susan Walter and Galerie Mariana Hollenbach in Stuttgart; in group shows at the Lieu D’Art Contemporain, Narbonne; Musee des Beaux Arts, Dunkerque; and in national galleries in Adelaide, Australia and Wellington, New Zealand. Paintings have also been included in a number of touring exhibitions to British regional galleries, notably ‘Sublime’ an exhibition curated from the Arts Council collection, and ‘British Art 2000’.
One Person Shows
2022 Still/s, in collaboration with 'Music We'd Like to Hear', St Mary at Hill, London
2004 Artlab 32: Mozart in Cambodia, Art Space, Imperial College, London. Supported by the Arts Council and Imperial College.
With collaborative composition, Joan Key and Keith Gifford, commissioned by Artlab
Live performance by Apartment House, Reed Lecture Theatre, 19th November
2002 Artlab 20: Exhibit>Compose>Perform>Spectate, Art Space, Imperial College.
With performance of poem by Lore Lixenberg accompanied by Anton Lukoszevieze, cello, (Video recording by Jayne Parker)
Supported by Imperial College.
2001 Evening Performance, Peer Trust
Music drawings, installation, Peer Office, Shoreditch Town Hall, London
1999 DID, COOC, BOI-DOG, Richard Salmon Gallery, new paintings and drawings, South Edwardes Square, London
1997 Yellow Paintings, Galerie Susan C. Walther, Stuttgart
1997 BOO Paintings, Dominic Dering Fine Art London
1997 Yellow Paintings, Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart
1996 BOO, OB, DO/OD and OO,OO paintings, Richard Salmon Gallery, London
1994 Abschied/Arrival, with Gisela Wieman, Bahnhof Westend Gallery
Installation: Violet Watercolours. Berlin, supported by the British Council, work commissioned to celebrate Anglo-German collaborations, on the occasion of British troops leaving Berlin.
1993 Affective Light, curated by Peter Cross and Jean Paul Martinon, Rear Window Trust. A group of individual shows with: Jane Harris, Zebedee Jones, Brad Lochore, David Ward. Catalogue with illustration, essay by Lewis Johnson and introduction by Peter Cross and Jean-Paul Martinon, at the former St Peters Hospital, Covent Garden, London.
1989 Poussin Paintings, Curwen Gallery, London
1982 Red Nudes, Third Eye Centre, curator Michael Tooby, Glasgow
1981 Heads, Battersea Arts Centre, London
1980 Madam Mouse, paintings and drawings, Newcastle Upon Tyne Polytechnic Art Gallery
Group Exhibitions
2023 In Search of the Miraculous, curator Anne Bean, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Walsingham, Norfolk
2022 ARCHIVE: A Gathering, curator Peter Fillingham, Project 77 Gallery, St Leonards
2022 Interval [ ], Crate Gallery, Margate
2020 Earth Responsive Works 1970 – 2020, curators Jenni Boswell Jones and Ismail Saray, AND Event Space, London
2019 After Bauhaus, curator Anne Sorensen, Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury
2018 Lost In Europe, project curators Gülsen Bal and Walter Seidl, with Bruce Barber, Haim Bresheeth & Yosefa Loshitzky; Margaret Hoppe; Oliver Ressler; Murray Robertson; Gregory Sholette; Amikam Toren; Raša Todosijević, Open Space Verein fur Ein Neues Forum von Kunst und Visuelle Kultur, Vienna
2018 +1, curator Liz May, Deptford X Festival, APT Gallery, London
2018 British Abstract Painting in the Eighties, curator Matthew Macaulay, with Tim Allen, Graham Boyd, Stephen Buckley, Jeff Dellow, Clyde Hopkins, Vanessa Jackson, Patrick Jones, Joan Key, Ian Kirkwood, Simon Lewis, Geoffrey Rigden, Trevor Sutton, David Sweet, Lanchester Research Gallery, Coventry
2018 Interval [ ] Still : Now, with Moyra Derby, Nicky Hamlyn, Conor Kelly and Jost Münster, Tintype, London
2017 Interval [ ] stop-gap, with Moyra Derby, Nicky Hamlyn, Conor Kelly and Jost Münster, Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury
2016 Interval [ ] The Waiting Room, Whitstable Biennale, programme curator Matthew de Pulford, with Moyra Derby, Nicky Hamlyn, Conor Kelly and Jost Münster, Whitstable Railway Station
2015 Drawing towards Sound: Visualising the Sonic, curator David Ryan, The Stephen Lawrence Gallery, University of Greenwich, London
2013 The World in a Box: a Bittersweet Salon, curator Peter Fillingham, Thanet Matchroom and Social Club, Margate
2012 Screen-Picture-Tableau, curators Moyra Derby and Matthew de Pulford, with Beth Harland, John Gillet, Laura Lisbon, Andrea Medjesi-Jones, Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury
2010 Incidentally, curator Sotiris Kyriacou, London, with Yvonne Lammerich, The Nunnery, Bow Arts Trust, London
2008 Travelogue, One in the Other Gallery, curator Sotiris Kyriacou, London, with Anna Barham, Susan Collins, Nadine Feinstein, Charlotte Moth
2008 The Walls in Three Places, White Nave Trust, curators Peter Fillingham and Rachael Daniels, Charlton Shopping Centre, Dover
2005 Les Merveilles du Monde, curators Peter Fillingham and Jane Lee. Catalogue, with essays by Andrew Hunter, Jane Lee, published by White Window Trust. Musee des Beaux Arts, Dunkerque
2005 Rough Diamond, curated by Sotiris Kyriacou, including Oliver Bancroft, Phyllida Barlow, Christiane Baumgartner, John Bock, Ellen Hyllemose, Peter McDonald, Clare Parry, Charlotte Thrane, Torgny Wilcke, program gallery, London
2004 Between Letters and Abstraction, curated by Daniel Sturgis, with Keith Coventry, Des Lawrence, Kay Rosen, and Lily Van Der Stokker. Catalogue with essay by Daniel Sturgis. 3 Degrees West Gallery, Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere
2003 Transmissions Portfolio, curated by Sharon Kivland, Domobaal Gallery, London, and Site Gallery, Sheffield
2002 Colour White, curated by Celia Davies and Colin Booth, including works by Ceal Floyer, Anish Kapoor, Langlands and Bell, Jason Martin, Ben Nicholson and Alan Reynolds. Catalogue, with essays by Norbert Lynton and Alan Powers, De la Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea
2001-02 VIVID, paintings from London and New York, including works by Torie Begg, Diana Cooper, Clem Crosby, Jonathon Feldschuh, Dennis Hollingsworth, Dona Nelson, Thomas Noskowski, Jonathon Parsons, Martyn Simpson, Michael Stubbs, Daniel Sturgis, curated by Sotiris Kyriacou, Richard Salmon Gallery
A touring exhibition also visiting the Mead Gallery at Warwick University, Sunderland City Art Gallery
2000-01 British Art Show 5, Arts Council Touring Exhibition, curated by Pippa Coles, Matthew Higgs, Jacqui Poncelet
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
The Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham
1999-2000 Sublime, The Darkness and the Light, Arts Coucil touring exhibition, curated by Roger Malbert, visiting John Hansard Gallery, Southampton; Atkinson Gallery, Street; Storey Gallery, Lancaster; Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham; The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke on Trent; Laing Art Gallery; Newcastle on Tyne; Wolsey Art Gallery, Ipswich.
1999 Passion, curated by Peter Cross and Jean Paul Martinon, Gasworks, London
1999 O Pas La! Surprising Spaces, Curated by Aude Herail-Jaeger, Lieu D'Art Contemporain Narbonne, 10th April - 30th March, including works by Eric Bainbridge, Phyllida Barlow, Judith Frost, Aude Herail Jager, David Johnson, Jayne Parker, Roxanne Permar, Terry Smith
Supported by the Henry Moore Foundation, the British Council, and Piet and Layla Moget
1998 British Painting, curated by Marianne Hollenbach, Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart
Including: David Austin, Simon Callery, Clem Crosby, Jane Harris, Richard Kirwan, Brad Lochore, Alain Miller, Michael Stubbs, Daniel Sturgis
1997 Sequence, Richard Salmon Gallery, Curated by Paul Heber-Percy, London, including works by Hanne Darboven, Gilbert and George, Martyn Last, Richard Long, Jonathon Parsons, Stephen Prina, Andreas Ruthi, Introductory text by Chris Kul-Want
1997 Pittura Brittanica, Art from Britain, curated by Bernice Murphy, Museum Of Contemporary Art, Sydney, a British Council Touring Exhibition continuing to:
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Museum of New Zealand, Wellington
1997 Contemporary British Drawings, curated by Linda Karshan, Sandra Gearing Gallery, New York
Including Tracy Emin and Dean Hughes.
1995 Pretext Heteronyms, curated by Juliet Steyn and Richard Appignanesi, a Rear Window Exhibition, The Clink, London
1994 Surface Tensions, with John Copnall, Angela De La Cruz, Marcia Hafif, Jane Harris, John Hoyland, Jason Martin, Martin McGinn, Yuko Shiraishi, Marc Vaux, Curwen Gallery, London
1992 Whitechapel Open and Open Studios, Whitechapel Gallery
1990 Whitechapel Open, curated by David Austen and Paul Bonaventura, Whitechapel Gallery
1989 Blasphemies, Ecstasies, Cries, curator Andrew Brighton, Serpentine Gallery
1988 Identities, Tower Hamlets Women's Art Forum, Chisenhale Gallery
1985 Modern Landscape, with Martin Ball, Chris Lebrun, Ian McKeever, Michael Porter, Terry Setch, Sunderland Arts Centre
1984 Painters and Prints, with Prunella Clough, Alan Green and Yuko Shiraishi, Curwen Gallery, London
1980 Seven Painters, curated by Jeremy Lewinson, with Graham Crowley, Martin Ball, Jeff Dellow, Clyde Hopkins, Bruce Russell, David Wiseman, Kettles Yard Gallery, Cambridge