Joan Sonnenberg

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Born 1930 in Chester, Pennsylvania, Joan Brechin Sonnenberg received a youth scholarship to study at the Carnegie Art Institute in Pittsburgh, PA. Her mother, a sculptor and a singer, and father, an industrial engineer who worked on the Manhattan Project, provided major creative influences. Lively conversations often revolved around religion, politics and the human condition, but invariably, the three found middle ground. As a college student at the Carnegie Mellon University, Sonnenberg was staff cartoonist for Tartan, the campus newspaper. After graduation, she continued with independent studies in printmaking techniques.

She won two Best of Show awards in 1976, with both exhibitions at the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio. Sonnenberg’s work has been honored with 57 major awards in art exhibitions throughout the United States – Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Ohio, North Carolina and Florida, with four solo exhibitions from 2004 to 2016. Jurors include internationally known artists Richard Anuszkiewicz and Faith Ringgold as well as art critics, museum curators and directors. Her large-scale etchings, paintings and murals have been included in 18 major corporation collections in Japan, Brazil and throughout the U.S.

A mother of four grown children, Joan Sonnenberg moved to the east coast of Florida in 1997 and since 2000 has been based in Naples. Petite, but with robust energy and insatiable curiosity, Sonnenberg maintains her lifelong studio practice working every day with sustained vigor. Her daily 4-mile walks continually inspire new ideas.

Awards

2017 – Best of Show, 67^th Annual, Florida Artist Group Exhibition, Coral Springs Museum of Art, Coral Springs Fl; Juror John Rasmussen, Director, Curator American University Museum at Katzen Arts Center

2017 – Best of Show, 28^th Annual Members, Centers for the Arts Bonita Springs, FL; Juror Scott Snyder, former director, Fine Art Gallery, Florida Gulf Coast University, Estero, FL

2015 – Best of Show, Surface Tension, Center for Arts at Bonita Springs, FL

2014 – Best of Show, 50^th Founders, The von Liebig Art Center, Naples, FL; Juror Erin Wright, Professor of Art, University of Alabama, Birmingham

2014 – Best of Show, 25^th Annual Members, Center for Arts at Bonita Springs, FL

2014 – First Place, Oddities, Center for Arts at Bonita Springs, FL; Juror Sally Brighton, MFA California artist and adjunct professor

2013 – First Place, Annual Members, Center for Arts at Bonita Springs, FL

2011 – First Place, Annual Members, Center for Arts at Bonita Springs, FL

2011 – Best of Show, Hot Hot Hot, Center for Arts at Bonita Springs, FL

2010 – Floyd Chaney Award, 100^th Annual, Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art; Pittsburgh, PA; Jurors art critic Donald Miller and Al Miner, curator Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Museum, Washington, DC.

2009 – Best of Show, 46^th Founders, The von Liebig Art Center, Naples, FL; Juror Daniel Stetson, Director, Chief Curator, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL

2008 – First Place, Spring Exhibition, Art Council of SW Florida, Estero, FL

2008 – Second Place, Images, Boca Raton Museum of Art; Juror Richard J. Frank, Curator of Education, BRMA and Norton Museum, Palm Beach, FL

2007 – Best of Show, Grace Lake Award, 46^th Founders, The von Liebig Art Center, Naples, FL; Juror Faith Ringgold, artist

2007 – Best of Show, All Florida Exhibition, Alliance for the Arts, Ft Myers, FL

2007 – Major Triad Award, Florida Watercolor Society Annual, Daytona Beach Museum of Art, Daytona Beach, FL

2007 – Ru Israels Memorial Award, Florida Artist Group Annual, Daytona Beach Museum of Art, Daytona Beach, FL

2006 – Major Triad Award, Florida Watercolor Society Annual, Sarasota Art Center, Sarasota, FL

2006 – Honorable Mention, National Biennial, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL

2003 – First Place, Super Bowl, Arts Council of SW Florida, Naples, FL

2002 – Best of Show, 42^th Founders, The von Liebig Art Center, Naples, FL; Juror Jennifer Hardin, Chief Curator, Museum of Fine Art, St. Petersburg, FL

2002 – First Place, Photography, Cornell Museum of Art, Delray Beach, FL

2002 – Award of Excellence, Lee County Alliance for the Arts, Fort Myers, FL

2001 – First Place, Super Bowl, Arts Council of SW Florida, Naples, FL

2000 – Best of Show, 40^th Founders, The von Liebig Art Center, Naples, FL

2000 – Juror’s Choice Award, Art Encounter, The von Liebig Art Center, Naples, FL

2000 – Best of Show, Eclectic Collective, Coral Springs Artist Guild, FL

1999 – Juror’s Choice Award, Art Encounter, The von Liebig Art Center, Naples, FL

1979 – First Prize, Raleigh Fine Arts Society Exhibition; North Carolina State University Galleries, Raleigh, NC; Juror Claude Howell, Chair, Art Department, UNC at Wilmington

1976 – Best of Show, Bicentennial National Invitational, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; Richard J. Boyle Director, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Pittsburgh, PA

1976 – First Prize/Butler Merit Medal, 40^th Annual Midyear Exhibition, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; Richard J. Boyle Director, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Pittsburgh, PA

Note: 2004-1976: 28 major awards in 32 Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Annual Exhibitions, Heinz Gallery, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA. Best of Show awarded by Juror Richard Anuszkiewicz.

Videos

Exbibitions

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2016 – Boundless: Joan Brechin-Sonnenberg, Ava Maria University Canizaro Library, Ava Maria, FL

2013 – Joan Sonnenberg: The Middle Point, The von Liebig Art Center, Naples, FL

2009 – Joan Sonnenberg, Emerge Art Center, Harvey Wooten Gallery, Greenville, NC

2009 – Flying Solo: Joan Sonnenberg, Art Gallery Old Naples, FL

2004 – Images Transcending the Medium, Coral Springs Museum of Art, Coral Springs, FL

JURIED EXHIBITIONS