Artist Biography
Joanna Lee Miller is a South African classically trained fine artist who is passionate about painting from life. Joanna broke from an eleven-year international corporate career working in the US, UK and Singapore, to train as a professional artist at The Florence Academy of Art in Italy (2017-2020). Joanna’s technical training follows the traditional academic methods of the 19th Century European Ateliers, enabling her to heighten her contemporary oil paintings with a stroke of classical realism.
Joanna was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She grew up surrounded by nature and majestic scenery, beginning her lifelong passion for her environment. Her expressive paintings of landscapes and people explore how our connection with nature and each other can help us connect with a deeper understanding of ourselves.
After her studies, Joanna returned to Cape Town and paints exclusively in oils from life, creating her landscapes en plein air in and around Cape Town and wherever her travels take her. Currently her Cape Town-based landscapes are complemented by paintings of the Karoo in South Africa, Sicily, Italy and Mallorca, Spain, with more travel locations on the horizon.
Joanna held her debut solo exhibition in June of 2023 with the State of the Art Gallery in Cape Town. Titled “Here I Find”, Joanna’s immersive landscape paintings explored the power of natural beauty – what a place can mean to us, and give to us. Each artwork both celebrated beauty and invited viewers to connect deeply to beauty through place. Joanna chose the title “Here I Find” because when we feel a deep sense of connection, we may feel like we lose ourselves for a moment, but actually, we find ourselves.
Joanna has additionally exhibited in various group shows with the State of the Art Gallery and Chandler House, and participates in the annual Open Studios with her studio collective SideTrack Studios. Joanna is a founding member of Salon104, a group of Cape Town-based artists who meet monthly to discuss, share and support one another on all topics art-related, in the development of their professional artistic careers. Salon104 created a group exhibition in November 2023 titled “Pleased to Meet You, Mr. Laubscher”, where the 11 participating Salon104 artists together exhibited 96 artworks, of which 9 were Joanna’s. Joanna was also proudly a Capetonian during the Zeitz Mocaa Contemporary Art Museum’s exhibition “Home is where the art is” – an exhibition by Capetonians for Capetonians (October 2020 – October 2021). Joanna also had her artworks selected for the 2020 Florence Academy of Art’s Student Exhibition.