Joan Balzar

Joan Balzar (Canadian, 1928-2016) is recognized as a key figure in the development of abstract painting on the West Coast in the 1960s, a time when Vancouver emerged as a city of increased energy and experimentation in visual art. A graduate of the Vancouver School of Art, Balzar adopted a vocabulary of large-scale, optical, hard-edge paintings, often including a neon element. These Op Art paintings were meant to create excitement in the retina. She was dedicated to the exploration of abstract art, spatial illusion and psychology of colour, which stayed as a constant medium throughout her works. There is a connection to the 1960s interest in new electronic communications media as exemplified by the ideas of Marshall McLuhan.