Joan Cox: Side by Side at Towson University Center for the Arts presents works from Baltimore artist Joan Cox, who for over twenty-five years has explored the complexities of lesbian life and love across a range of media, from large oil paintings to light-and-shadow installations. This collection highlights the artist’s significant contributions to the genres of figurative painting and queer portraiture. The exhibition takes its title from a poem of the same name by Adrienne Rich, which describes a tender moment between lovers: “Ho! in the dawn / how light we lie / stirring faintly as laundry / left all night on the lines.” Like Rich’s verse, Cox’s paintings capture the quiet, often fleeting moments of intimacy between women, enlivened through the artist’s expressive brushstrokes and imaginative use of color.

Cox frequently draws her subjects from her immediate community, documenting a diversity of lesbian couples and the profound beauty of their quotidian intimacies. These intimate encounters, while sometimes sensual or erotic, are also domestic, mundane, and, above all, politically charged. Cox does not shy away from the political implications of her work. Instead, she embraces images of lesbian partnership as a tool for championing those who have often been overlooked in hegemonic histories of art and culture, and as a vehicle for reimagining social relations across difference.

A centerpiece of this exhibition is a series of recent collaborations with Los Angeles photographer Morgan Lieberman. Lieberman’s photographs of senior lesbian couples appear alongside Cox’s painterly reinterpretations, creating a rich visual dialogue across generations. Together, Cox and Lieberman pay tribute to these queer elders and give new meaning to the act of working and living “side by side.” Taking Cox’s dialogic approach to painting as a point of departure, Side by Side invites viewers to consider how these dual portraits offer layered insights into identity, intimacy, and relationality.

2024 EXHIBITIONS

Portraits Project
A nine-movement oratorio performance paired with nine portraits and choreographed dance.
Premiered at the Kennedy Center on June 16, 2024 and performed again at Gala Chorus in Minneapolis, MN on July 13, 2024 by the Gay Men's Chorus of DC and the 17th Street Dance company, Washington, DC!

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JUNE Baltimore, MD — Gallery Blue Door at Emmanuel
JUNE Bethesda, MD — Pride Repped at Extend Yoga
JUNE Ventura, CA – The Pink Tide at Dama Gallery
JULY San Diego, CA — PROUD+ at The Studio Door exhibiting "Duo Totem" and selected as Best in Show

AUGUST Washington, DC —Sapphic Gaze, Solo Exhibition at IA&A at Hillyer
AUGUST Sapphic Gaze presents a compelling series of vibrant, life-size portraits that delve into the intimate lives of women-loving women. Drawing from her 23-year relationship and the experiences of lesbian couples in her community, Joan Cox crafts visual narratives that champion intense, celebratory, and nuanced relationships. By reimagining historical art compositions with personal narratives and lush, symbolic imagery, Joan challenges the historical absence of lesbian representation in Western art. Her paintings are a canvas of affirmation, celebrating the dynamic and complex intimacies between women, which have long been overlooked or taboo. Through this exhibition, Joan showcases the beauty and complexity of sapphic love and aims to affirm these relationships, recognizing them for their intrinsic value and significant place in contemporary society.

AUGUST California Women Artists Making their Mark ONLINE exhibition, July 23 to October 1, 2024
SEPTEMBER Baltimore, MD — Baltimore MetGala Fashion & Art Event September 14, 2024
SEPTEMBER Boston, MA — Heirloom Convoy: 4th Annual MassArt Alumni Exhibition '24, AUG 31 - OCT 20
OCTOBER Rochester, NY Queering Democracy: Art, Identity, and Politics in 2024 October 4 - November 16, 2024 at Rochester Contemporary Art Center (RoCo) in partnership with ImageOut Art
OCTOBER Mexico City Efimero: Vida, Muerte, y Arte at Juan Rulfo Cultural Center