Janelle Wisehart
Lutz, Florida
artist
Janelle Wisehart is a painter. Using a range of drawing and painting media to create her art, Wisheart spins ambiguous narratives starring a disjointed cast of characters including cartoon creatures, cultural stereotypes and anthropomorphic objects living in small town Georgia. Her eccentric images are based on both real and imagined experiences and present a contemporary mashup of the dark humor, irony and grotesquery often featured in Southern Gothic literature. At once familiar and unsettling, her pieces examine the disorienting duality of appearances and reality. Wisehart is currently active in making and showing her art. Since 2006, she has participated in twenty-nine exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Her work has been published in New American Paintings, Studio Visit. In 2007 Wisehart received her BFA at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia. She earned her MFA from the University of South Florida in 2014. In 2016 she moved back to South Georgia where she has been very busy creating new work in a large studio space.
This bio/description was originally published in 2016 and updated in 2017. For more current information, please refer to the award recipient's website (if provided).