A woman with long wavy hair wearing a light denim shirt and gray pants, sitting on a work table surrounded by various textured ceramic vases in a pottery studio.

ABOUT JOAN

Joan Pinto is a ceramicist specializing in visual, elegant, and sensory art. Her organic work is influenced by her fascination with seed pods, biomorphic formations and the subtle illumination of porcelain. Her vessels and non functional pieces add a natural depth and interest to their surroundings and are a pleasure to touch. Joan loves the outdoors, takes daily walks and considers her work to be an echo of the nature that surrounds her.

Joan obtained a Bachelor's degree in Fine Art from UC Davis and studied Art History while living in Holland. Her post-graduate studies took place at Brooks Institute of Photography, where she specialized in Architecture and Digital Media and where she met her husband. After working in San Francisco at an interactive advertising agency, Joan and her husband started a family. She then became a yoga instructor and taught for several years. Possibly due to the intense self awareness of her yoga practice Joan realized she was always meant to be an artist. She immerses her early studies in art, photography and yoga in her ceramic works creating beautiful, visual meditations.

Exhibitions

2025:

  • Bay Area Fine Arts and Crafts Exhibition, Sausalito Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA

  • Guest Artist, Winter Beauty Exhibit, Blackhawk Gallery, Danville, CA

2024:

  • Material Resonance, Kriste Michelini Design, Studio, Danville, CA

  • Two-Person Exhibition, Lasting Impressions, Kriste Michelini Design Studio, Danville, CA (with printmaker Kristina Nobleman)

  • Bay Area Arts and Crafts Exhibition, Sausalito Center for the Arts, Sausalito,CA (Director Shiva Pakdel)

2023:

  • Potentiality/Actuality, Greater Bay Area Open (GBAO)Juried Exhibition, presented by Los Gatos Art Association,Los Gatos, CA (Jurors: Pancho Jiménez, Ceramic Artist and Allison Railo, Curator of the New Museum Los Gatos)

  • Annual Bay Area Artists' Choice, SFWA Members' Juried Exhibition, San Francisco, CA (Juror: Devon Bella)

2008:

  • Local Voice, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA (Juror: Phillip Linhares)

1995:

  • Mostly Mud, UC Davis Basement Gallery, Ceramic Sculpture

  • Works in Progress, UC Davis Shooting Gallery

  • Sculpture, Photography, Mixed Media, UC Davis Basement Gallery, Three-person show

1994:

  • Archeology of Identity, Del Paso, Sacramento Phantom Gallery, UC Davis Basement Gallery, 198 Seminar Class, Archeology of Identity, UC Davis Basement Gallery, Davis

  • Photo Exposition, In Like a Lion, UC Davis Shooting Gallery

  • A Day in the City, UC Davis Memorial Union, Whole Earth Festival

EDUCATION

1999:

  • Degree in Digital and Architecture Photography, Brook's Institute of Photography, Santa Barbara, CA

1995:

  • BA, Fine Art, University of California, Davis, CA

Two dark gray, textured ceramic vases against a white background. One taller and wider, the other shorter and more rounded.

Please email me to discuss available work, commissions or wholesale accounts.