Directory

Joanna Tam (she/her) is a Hong Kong-born visual artist and educator who lives and works on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Wampanoag and the Massachusett People, also known as Boston. Her interdisciplinary practice examines migration, construction of national identity, the idea of safety, and one’s connection to places through video, photography, performance, installation, and community engagement. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Selected  solo exhibitions include American Studies 2019 at the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University; Visibility Studies at Regis College Fine Arts Center; Wasenstraße Story at Chrom VI in Idar-Oberstein, Germany; Let’s Story at the Boston Children’s Museum. Tam is the recipient of the 2024 Prilla Smith Brackett Award (presented by Davis Museum), the 2024 Collective Futures Fund’s Sustaining Practice Grant, and the 2020 SMFA Traveling Fellowship. Her video, Reduction Study (Ping Pong), has been awarded Best Art Film at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival in York, UK. She has been invited to attend artist residencies at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, the Boston Center for the Arts, the Boston Children’s Museum, the Vermont Studio Center, and Wedding Cake House. Her work has appeared in the The Boston Globe, the Boston Art Review, Artscope, and Emergency Index. Tam holds an MFA from the School of Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and is a member of the Mobius Artists Group.

Industry Experience

Selected Solo Exhibitions:

• 2023 – Visibility Studies, Carney Gallery at Regis College, Western, MA
• 2023 – Visibility Studies, 10b Projects, Boston, MA
• 2019 – American Studies 2019, Center for American Political Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
• 2019 – Wasenstraße Story, Chrom VI, Idar-Oberstein, Germany
• 2016 – Let’s Story, Boston Children’s Museum, Boston, MA

Selected Group Exhibitions, Screenings and Performances:

• 2025 – an archive and/or a repertoire, Tufts University Art Galleries, Boston, MA
• 2024 – State of the Nation, The Old Stone House, Brooklyn, NY
• 2024 – Fire in the Basement, Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA
• 2023 – BOLD: Challenging Norms, Igniting Dialogue, MassArt x SoWa, Boston, MA
• 2023 – Evaporate International Live Art Festival, Boston Metropolitan Waterworks Museum, Chestnut Hill, MA
• 2023 – Decoding the Colonial | NAPJ, organized by Now+There, Lot Lab, Charlestown, MA
• 2023 – Race, Love, and Labor (an excerpt), The Center for Photography at Woodstock, Kingston, NY
• 2022 – VIDEOAKTION #3, organized by attaque(e)r le visible, Raum für drastische Maßnahmen, Berlin, Germany
• 2022 – Fire in the Belly, Fountain Street, Boston, MA
• 2022 – Sanctuary City, Somerville Museum, Somerville, MA
• 2022 – SNAPSHOT, Mills Gallery, Boston, MA
• 2021 – Routine Maintenance Virtual Performance Festival, University of North Florida Gallery of Art
• 2020 – Present Histories Redefined, VanDernoot Gallery, Cambridge, MA
• 2019 – Dot Now, University Hall Gallery, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA
• 2019 – Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong
• 2018 – Resistant Currents, Mills Gallery, Boston, MA

Selected Publications, Presentations, and Media:

• 2024 – McQuaid, Cate. “WORKING ARTIST | JOANNA TAM” Boston Globe, September 30, 2024.
• 2024 – Presentation at Northeastern University, Boston, MA
• 2023 – McQuaid, Cate. “Safety, surveillance, and being seen — Joanna Tam examines it all in ‘Visibility Studies’” Boston  Globe, November 14, 2023.
• 2023 – Presentation at SMFA at Tufts University, Boston, MA
• 2023 – “Salted Egg Yolk”, Emergency Index: An Annual Document of Performance Practice in Pandemic Times, Vol. 10+, edited by Yelena Gluzman, published by Ugly Duckling Presse, Brooklyn
• 2022 – Ogden, Claire. “Csekö’s ‘Sanctuary City’ exhibit enters final days enraging and activating at Somerville Museum” Cambridge Day, November 14, 2022.
• 2022 – Presentation at Urbano Project at Cultural Equity Incubator, Boston, MA
• 2022 – Presentation as one of the keynote speakers at Scout’s Design Conference, Northeastern University, Boston, MA
• 2021 – “Shifting Contours”, Boston Art Review Issue 07: Rooting, published by Boston Art Review, Boston
• 2020 – Presentation at Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
• 2020 – Presentation at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
• 2020 – Harrington, Leah Triplett. “Virtual Studio Visit | Joanna Tam” N+T Journal, May 20, 2020.
• 2018 – Presentation at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA

Awards, Reconitions, Honors:

• 2024 – Prilla Smith Brackett Award (Davis Museum, Wellesley College)
• 2024 – Collective Futures Fund’s Sustaining Practice Grant
• 2023 – Finalist, Year of the Dragon Public Art Project, commissioned by the Greenway Conservancy, Boston, MA
• 2021 – Boston Center for the Arts Studio Residency (2021 – 2023), Boston MA
• 2021 – Semi-Finalist, Colorado International Activism Film Festival
• 2020 – SMFA at Tufts 2020 Traveling Fellowship, Boston, MA
• 2012 – Best Art Film, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York, United Kingdom

Collections:

• Center for American Political Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
• Center for Photography at Woodstock’s Permanent Print Collection, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz, NY

Connect:

• joannatam.net

Awards

2024   Prilla Smith Brackett Award (Davis Museum, Wellesley College)
2024   Collective Futures Fund’s Sustaining Practice Grant
2023   Finalist, Year of the Dragon Public Art Project, commissioned by the Greenway Conservancy, Boston, MA
2020   SMFA at Tufts Traveling Fellowship
2012    Best Art Film, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York, United Kingdom

Professional Affiliations

Mobius Artists Group