Joan Semmel in her Spring Street studio in 2026 (all photos Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic unless otherwise noted) The first thing one encounters upon entering Joan Semmel’s Soho loft is an eerie oil ...

Joan Semmel’s paintings of contorted women — sometimes realist, sometimes surreal or abstracted — are mesmerizing and beautiful, but they are also disturbing. When her work is framed as such, the ...

New York artist Joan Semmel is seeing her market take off after painting for the better part of a century. Known for her vibrant and sensual nudes, Hold Tight exemplifies her practice with its tightly ...

Joan Semmel is an American artist known for her paintings that explore sexuality, the body, intimacy, and self-exploration both physically and psychologically. "I would like to get away from the basic ...

The painter, 89, has never shied away from erotic imagery. Her signature nude self-portraits are an attempt to see herself through her own eyes. The artist Joan Semmel in her SoHo studio, where she ...