Joya: AiR / Jo Bertini / AUS
photo Simón Beckmann
Joya: AiR / Jo Bertini / AUS
“Joya: AiR is a unique and ambitious project, a lifetime commitment to art and environment by artists, for artists. This beautiful, remote, arid property is a model for sustainable artistic and ecological practice, intelligent, ambitious and a working testament to providing a supportive, inclusive, well curated community. There is no pressure to produce or perform. The surrounding natural landscape is an endless font of creative possibility and inspiration. I was as much surprised by the familiar as the unfamiliar. This ancient arid landscape is full of the unexpected, opportunities and gifts. I was so grateful for the immersive learning experience Joya: AiR provided, revealing so much about Spanish human history, ecology and this unique European 'Natural Park'.
In the light of an increasingly demanding, globalised world, where the importance of curiosity and staying true to oneself as an artist becomes eroded, distracted and underestimated, the value of Joya: AiR and the significant experience it offers is even more rare and precious. Time at Joya: AiR is a true artistic respite and a moment of stillness, where one can simply be ones' creative self. Both Donna & Simon are a resource themselves of well researched knowledge and experience on art, environment, flora & fauna, contemporary sustainable design and engineering. Joya: AiR provides an invaluable opportunity to meet, connect with and learn from a like-minded, varied cohort of international artistic practitioners and potential lifelong friends.
Joya: AIR is a sanctuary for creative, artistic souls and those sensitive to environmental concerns and the natural world. Long may it flourish and prosper.”
Jo Bertini lives and works between the deserts of New Mexico and the arid lands of Australia. Her artworks incorporate landscape, portrait painting, science, ecology, history and cultural heritage, informed by working with indigenous communities living in arid, isolated regions.
An established, awarded Australian artist, renowned lecturer and teacher, Jo has 40 years exhibiting experience. She was a recipient of an ‘0-1 Extraordinary Ability’ Visa and currently working on projects in the American Southwest. She has had two recent, solo, US museum exhibitions, ‘Deep in Land,’ at the Galleries of Contemporary Art at the University of Colorado in 2022 and ‘Mountain of the Watchful Heart’ at the historic Blumenschein Museum in Taos, New Mexico in 2023.
For ten years Jo worked as Australia’s first female Expedition Artist with Australian Desert Expeditions, a research-based trekking outfitter that uses camels to carry the burden of food, water and equipment to guide scientists on environmental research in the most remote desert regions of Australia. She has contributed to many scientific publications and museum archives.
Jo’s paintings have been curated in hundreds of group exhibitions, exhibited as final ist in numerous art awards, winning many prizes. She has been awarded solo museum, gallery and touring exhibitions throughout Australia, India, Malaysia, China and the Unit ed States, as well as awarded public commissions, grants and residencies. She has been awarded international residencies in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Colorado, USA and Indian Government sponsored residencies in India.