Joni Smith (b. 1955) is a prolific, entirely self-taught Portland artist who has been drawing since childhood. She has an extraordinary creative practice, sometimes drawing for over eight hours each day, often regardless of place and circumstance. Art-making is inextricable from Joni’s life – she creates at a drafting table in her art studio, nestled in a recliner in her living room, and even from the bed of a hospital room. For Joni, art is a primary communication tool. 

Over the course of her 60+ year art practice, she has filled hundreds of sketchbooks, frequently drawing on the front and back of each page. In 2021, Joni joined North Pole Studio where she began using an upright drafting table and tabletop easel, allowing her to access large-scale paper from her wheelchair and marking a significant phase-change in her creative practice. Using these tools, Joni continues to build an extensive collection of large-scale works, working across various sizes, paper textures and multiple mediums. 

Joni’s process is kinetic and expressive; she harnesses raw energy into mark-making that oscillates between sweeping, delicate linework to forceful, striking motions that can tear through the page. Seemingly guided by intuition, she draws in continuous, rhythmic movement while making instantaneous decisions about color as she adds layers to build each form. Joni’s process is episodic; themes in color and shape can be found throughout her work in sets or multiphase series. Joni’s most recent works showcase her exploration of an elegant arcing shape – variations of which take an almost shell or cloud-like form. In other works, undulating orbs are put in tension with one another, almost as if dualling, and in earlier works, Joni works across the perimeter of her page, giving the impression of a central magnetic force as each shape is drawn inward and towards one another.

Joni’s creative practice and collection of work has only become known to the public within the last 5 years, and this is the first solo exhibition of her work. 

Joni Smith: Markmaker opens on Thursday, October 2nd during First Thursday. The opening reception will be from 4-7pm with a short program at 5pm.