Joan Huiner Ranzini is an abstract painter and collage artist living and working in Virginia. Her work process and product are shaped by a background in drawing, architectural design, and travel in Japan. She seeks to create images in paint and collage that feel potent and alive. Her deep purpose is to discover forms of beauty that develop naturally from the creative process, without preconceptions about palette or imagery.
Ranzini received her Bachelor of Arts degree with High Honors from the College of William & Mary, where her major was Fine Arts with an emphasis on Architecture. She received her Master’s degree in Architectural History from the University of Virginia with coursework in architectural design. She was a Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellowship recipient to Millay, and has been in residency at The Horned Dorset Colony and was a Painting Fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She served as the juror for “Contemporary Women Artists of Virginia” at the Shenandoah Valley Arts Center and for the 2019 Academy of Fine Arts “National Juried Art Exhibition” at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lynchburg. In 2020 and 2022, she was one of three jurors for the Annual VMRC “National Juried Art Exhibition” in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
At the Beverley Street Studio School in Staunton, she has studied, taught drawing classes, and served as Academic Program Coordinator. She maintains an active solo and juried exhibit schedule and her work is included in public and private collections in the United States, and private collections in Canada, Germany, and Japan.