Biography

Joy Laville, b. 1923, Isle of Wight, England

Joy Laville lives and works in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

The simplicity of Laville's work is deceptive. She struggles to reduce her artwork to its essence, searching for an image that will "read" like poetry. The ocean remains for Laville a symbol of the unknown. Laville's serene images are generated by disquiet; only careful contemplation of the image delivers the emotion they hold within. She imbues each figure, still life, landscape or interior with a form of temperance that conveys tension while giving them presence. Even her portraits reveal more about the sitters than simply their outward appearance.

During the spring of 2004, Joy Laville was honored with a retrospective exhibition at Mexico City's Museo de Arte Moderno. Her evocative work—reflective memory suspended in time—belies its depth. Leonora Carrington referred to it with admiration as "a fingerprint" because it is unique. Laville works zealously and has presented twenty-one individual shows in twenty years, in Mexico, Europe, and the United States. 2004's retrospective exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno, curated by Santiago Espinosa de los Monteros, brought together works from more than four decades and represented Joy Laville's unique and continuing contribution to contemporary Mexican art.