Untitled, from the Presences portfolio, 1980 © Joan Lyons / courtesy Stephen Bulger Gallery

Joan Lyons

January 10 – February 28, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 10, 2–5pm
Guided Tour with Joan Lyons: January 10, 3pm
Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto

Stephen Bulger Gallery is pleased to announce our representation of Joan Lyons (American, b. 1937, Brooklyn, NY) with a solo exhibition featuring examples of work made over six decades. Since the 1960s, Lyons has been a key figure and influence in the photography scene in Rochester, New York. Working in printmaking, photography, and artists’ books, she creates innovative work that incorporates both historical and contemporary processes. Her fascination with the people and objects that surround her, along with her desire to challenge the influence of traditional photography through a feminist lens result in Lyons drawing her private life into her artistic practice. Her artwork moves well beyond the Black & White printing that once dominated the photographic academy.

Untitled, Haloid transfer drawing from the Womans’ Portrait series, 1975 © Joan Lyons / courtesy Stephen Bulger Gallery

Our exhibition features work from ten of Lyons’ key photographic projects and a wide range of media, including antiquated photographic processes, photograms, offset lithography, photo-quilt making, pinhole photography, xerography, screen printing, and digital prints. Her technical skill enables her to develop complex processes using a variety of optical devices and print techniques.

In a 1982 artist statement, Lyons wrote: “I work through complexity to something simple and direct. This distillation process becomes more evident as time goes on. I work at those things that are evident; how I see, not conventions of seeing.”

Untitled, from the Presences portfolio, 1980 © Joan Lyons / courtesy Stephen Bulger Gallery

Our exhibition will include seminal work from over fifty years of artistic production, including Untitled (bedspread), 1969; Prom, 1975; Women’s Portrait Series, 1974–1979; the portfolio Presences, 1980; Happy Birthday, August 1986; Domestic Accumulations, 2016–2025; and Land(landscape)scapes, 2010–2020.

Lyons completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Alfred University, New York (1957), and a Master of Fine Arts at SUNY Buffalo, New York (1973). Since 1963, her work has been collected by major institutions worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln; the Arts Council of Great Britain; the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Her work is held in numerous permanent collections, among them the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Minneapolis Institute of Art; the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Lyons has published over thirty editions of her artist’s books since 1972. A retrospective exhibition, JOAN LYONS, was organized by the Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, and presented from February 25 to August 13, 2023.

Untitled, digital print from pinhole paper negative, from the series Domestic Accumulations, 2007 – 2014 © Joan Lyons / courtesy Stephen Bulger Gallery

In addition to her artistic practice, Lyons was the Founding Director of the influential Visual Studies Workshop Press (1972–2004). Under her leadership, VSW Press played a central role in the evolution and definition of the field of artist’s books over the past six decades, publishing more than 450 titles. Lyons is the editor of the highly influential Artist’s Books: A Critical Anthology and Sourcebook (1986, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1995), as well as the annotated bibliography Artist’s Books: Visual Studies Workshop Press, 1972–2008.

Stephen Bulger Gallery
1356 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON M6J 1Y2
416-504-0575
info@bulgergallery.com

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Accessibility: The gallery is partially accessible, with a level entrance, an accessible washroom, wide and unobstructed pathways, and automatic doors at the entrance.