Josephine Halvorson

Josephine Halvorson makes art that foregrounds firsthand experience. Her paintings, made in relation to specific places and durations, represent objects that evidence their own histories. By working on site and in real time, Halvorson describes the physical appearance of what she sees, but also expresses what is felt but not necessarily visible, such as environment, time, and emotion.

Halvorson grew up on Cape Cod and studied at The Cooper Union and Columbia University. She has been awarded three international yearlong fellowships: the United States Fulbright to Vienna, Austria; the Harriet Hale Woolley at the Fondation des États-Unis in Paris, France; and was the first American Pensionnaire at the French Academy in Rome at the Villa Medici. Selected exhibitions include the ICA Boston, Storm King Art Center, and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art. In 2021 she will present a solo exhibition at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Halvorson is Professor of Art and Chair of Graduate Studies in Painting at Boston University. She lives in Western Massachusetts.

Photo Credit: Daniele Molajoli, courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co.