Josephine Halvorson
Value#89
Egon Investment Scores
Liquidity
4/10
How easily works can be bought and sold at auction
Institutional
8/10
Museum collections, biennials, and institutional recognition
Momentum
6/10
Recent price trends, gallery moves, and market buzz
Discovery
3/10
Undervaluation opportunity relative to peer artists
Risk
3/10
Investment risk factors — higher means more volatile
Market Position
- Pricing
- Steady gallery-managed growth. Artist transitioned from oil on linen (2008-2017) to acrylic gouache on panel (2018-present), potentially creating different price tiers. Works consistently handled by major auction houses indicate solid mid-career market position.
- Comparables
- Positioned alongside contemporary observational painters including Lois Dodd, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, and mid-career artists with strong institutional validation and gallery representation.
- Primary Market
- Availability
- Works actively available through primary galleries. Recent 2024-2025 works shown at James Fuentes and Sikkema Jenkins.
- Pricing Guidance
- Contact Sikkema Jenkins & Co. or James Fuentes for current pricing. Gallery-controlled market with works typically 'Price on Request' for contemporary pieces.
- Gallery Representation
Location Gallery Relationship New York Sikkema Jenkins & Co. Primary representation since 2008 Paris Peter Freeman, Inc. European representation Los Angeles James Fuentes Recent 2024 exhibition 'New Hours'
- Auction History
- Secondary Market
- Auction Houses
- Sotheby'sChristie'sPhillipsBonhamsLos Angeles Modern Auctions
- Auction Activity
- Annual Volume: Limited secondary market activity, approximately 3-5 lots annually; Temporal Note: Modest auction presence indicates gallery-controlled market; Sell Through Rate: 33.3% over last 36 months (per Artsy data); Total Lots Tracked: 22+ auction lots over career
- Market Characteristics
- Liquidity: Low to moderate - limited secondary market activity; Collector Base: Private collectors and institutional acquisitions; Price Transparency: Low - most auction results show 'sign up to see price' or undisclosed; Geographic Distribution: Primarily U.S. market with European interest via Peter Freeman Paris
- Price Scale Indicators
- Large Works: Over 70 inches, less common scale; Small Works: Under 25 inches, 2008-2015 works; Medium Works: 30-40 inches, core body of work
- Recent Auction Results
- Date
- December 2024
- Sale
- Between Thought and Expression: Works from the Collection of A.G. Rosen
- Work
- Documents Box (2009) and Blocked Window (2009)
- Price
- Not disclosed
- Venue
- Sotheby's
- Date
- August 2024
- Size
- 20 x 14.25 inches
- Work
- Newtown Creek (from Marie Lorenz's Boat), 2013
- Price
- Not disclosed
- Venue
- Los Angeles Modern Auctions
- Medium
- Gouache and collage on paper
- Provenance
- Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
- Date
- July 2024
- Size
- 73 x 34 inches
- Work
- Breaking Door, 2014
- Price
- Not disclosed
- Venue
- Sotheby's
- Medium
- Oil on linen
- Date
- May 2024
- Size
- 31 x 22 inches
- Work
- Night Window, July 19-20, 2015
- Price
- Not disclosed
- Venue
- Christie's
- Medium
- Oil on linen
- Date
- September 2023
- Size
- 18 x 22 inches
- Work
- Picture Door, 2008
- Price
- Not disclosed
- Venue
- Sotheby's
- Medium
- Oil on linen
- Date
- March 2023
- Size
- 21 x 17 1/8 inches
- Work
- Metallic Plate (Top), 2010
- Price
- Not disclosed
- Venue
- Phillips
- Medium
- Oil on linen
- Date
- February 2022
- Size
- 31 x 22 inches
- Work
- Night Window, May 20-21, 2015
- Price
- Not disclosed
- Venue
- Bonhams
- Medium
- Oil on linen
- Date
- February 2022
- Size
- 19 x 24 inches
- Work
- First Fireplace Farm, 2008
- Price
- Not disclosed
- Venue
- Bonhams
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Historical Range Estimate
- Works from 2008-2015 period appearing at major auction houses. Price data consistently undisclosed, suggesting private treaty sales and gallery buy-backs to maintain market control.
- Collector Intelligence
- Notable Collectors
- Note
- Featured in major Sotheby's collection sale 2024
- Works
- Multiple works including Documents Box (2009) and Blocked Window (2009)
- Collector
- A.G. Rosen Collection
- Institutional Collectors
- Museum of Fine Arts Boston, High Museum Atlanta, ICA Boston, Hood Museum of Art Dartmouth, Orlando Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution
Institutional Presence
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Boston, MAHigh Museum of Art
Atlanta, GAInstitute of Contemporary Art Boston
Boston, MAHood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College
Hanover, NHOrlando Museum of Art
Orlando, FLSmithsonian Institution
Samsung Museum of Art / Plateau Museum
Seoul, South Korea- Exhibitions
- Group Exhibitions Notable
Title Venue Note The Lure of the Dark: Contemporary Painters Conjure the Night MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA — Havana Biennale — International biennial participation — American Academy in Rome Multiple group exhibitions during Rome Prize tenure
- Museum Collections
- Curatorial Attention
- Strong institutional validation with solo exhibitions at ICA Boston, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Wexner Center, Storm King Art Center. First American to receive Rome Prize at Villa Medici demonstrates significant international recognition.
- Institutional Momentum
- Consistent upward trajectory from first gallery show in 2008 to major museum survey in 2015 and prestigious institutional residencies 2019-2021. Recent 2024-2025 activity shows sustained institutional interest.
Career & Biography
- Career
- Career Position
- Professor of Art and Chair of Graduate Studies in Painting at Boston University (since 2016)
- Identity
- Residencies
Year Location Program Winter 2025-26 — MacDowell 2019 — Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Artist-in-Residence 2016 Captiva, Florida Robert Rauschenberg Foundation — Sablons, France Moly-Sabata - Early Training
- Studied with Barnet Rubenstein at the School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and practiced painting on Cape Cod beaches while in high school. Parents were artists who worked in metal and blacksmithing.
- Current Location
- Western Massachusetts
- Teaching History
- Yale School of Art (Senior Critic, 2010-2016)The Cooper Union (2011-2013)Princeton University (2011-2013)Columbia University (2007-2009)University of Tennessee Knoxville (2012)Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2018)
- Awards and Honors
Year Award 2021 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship 2019 James and Audrey Foster Prize 2014-2015 Rome Prize at French Academy at Villa Medici 2009 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award 2010 New York Foundation for the Arts Award in Painting 2007-2008 Harriet Hale Woolley Fellowship 2003-2004 US Fulbright Fellowship
Artistic Profile
- Style
- Relatively loose, painterly factureDirect observation rather than illusionismTransparent, bodiless quality of acrylic gouacheHand-drawn measuring devices and scales incorporated into compositionsSite materials embedded in framesVertical orientation common, avoiding traditional horizontal landscape formatShallow, almost bas-relief spatial depthDownward gaze excluding horizon and sky
- Evolution
- Technical Evolution
- Early Period
- Years: 2008-2017; Materials: Oil on linen; Characteristics: Longer working time aligned with oil paint drying as 'curing period'
- Current Period
- Years: 2018-present; Materials: Acrylic gouache on absorbent grounds; Inspiration: Fresco painting's ability to hold color and mark indelibly; Characteristics: Fast-drying, absorbent surface preserves observations in real time, 'verité quality'
- Influences
- Influences and Context
- Literary Influence
- Elizabeth Bishop (artist's stated favorite poet) - attention to detail and essence of portrayed subject
- Contemporary Dialogue
- Part of intergenerational group including Lois Dodd, Hank Ehrenfried, Julia Jacquette, Sylvia Plimack Mangold - artists concerned with observer/observed relationship and direct engagement
- Art Historical References
- Baroque trompe l'oeil traditionsPost-Impressionist spatial devicesRobert Smithson's 'non-sites' and land artLandscape photography
- Visual Language
- Scale Range
- Panoramas
- Up to 132 inches wide, expanded horizontal vision
- Intimate Works
- 12-24 inches, close observation
- Standard Works
- 30-42 inches, typical gallery scale
- Outdoor Sculptures
- Monumental scale at Storm King Art Center
- Themes and Subjects
- Patches of ground viewed from above
- Doors, windows, architectural details
- Post-industrial machinery and objects
- Bulletin boards with pinned ephemera
- Natural environment elements (trees, rocks, flowers)
- Roadside memorials
- Found tools and utilitarian objects
- Books and documents
- How place and environment manifest in painting
- Relationship between material and medium
- Marking time and place of painting's creation
- Investigation of 'active objects' interacting with artist
- Distinction between material fact and immaterial illusion
- Memory and temporal documentation
- Things 'neither dead nor alive but hovering in between'
- Forgotten or overlooked objects and spaces
- Movements and Periods
- Formal Innovations
- Integration of measuring devices (rulers, tape measures) as both subject and perceptual tool
- Incorporation of site materials (crushed rocks, debris) into frame surrounds
- Screen-printed calibration marks and color charts as indexing systems
- Large-scale outdoor painted wooden rulers functioning as sculpture (Storm King 2016)
- Multi-panel temporal progressions (e.g., Peony 2022, 25 panels documenting six-week observation)
- Signature Practice
- Scale
- Typically one-to-one scale with subject matter
- Methodology
- En plein air painting, working on-site face-to-face with subject
- Time Constraint
- Each painting completed in single continuous session, typically one day
- Working Distance
- Often no more than arm's length from subject
- Techniques and Mediums
- Painting (oil on linen 2008-2017, acrylic gouache on panel 2018-present), also sculpture and printmaking
Critical Reception
- Critical Reception
- Critical Themes
- Observational rigor and 'en plein air' practiceRelationship between material and mediumMemento mori and temporal documentationAttention to overlooked and mundane subjectsPainting as duration and time-markingTrompe l'oeil conventions and perceptual questionsRelationship between observer and observed
- Artist Statements
- Artist describes practice as 'collaboration between me, my materials, and the world' where 'painting becomes a testament to time spent together.' States goal to 'make a painting that remembers better than I can.'
- Critical Consensus
- Highly regarded for rigorous observational practice and conceptual depth. Critics consistently praise her 'en plein air' methodology, attention to overlooked subjects, and ability to transcend simple representation. Barry Schwabsky (Artforum) connects her work to trompe l'oeil traditions while noting her interest in fiction over realism. Jason Stopa (Artforum 2024) positions her within intergenerational dialogue with painters like Lois Dodd and Sylvia Plimack Mangold. Ksenia Soboleva (Brooklyn Rail) emphasizes memento mori themes. Critical reception has been consistently positive across major publications.
- Publications and Media
- Major Publications
Coverage Publication Multiple reviews 2011-2024, including recent December 2024 review by Jason Stopa Artforum Extensive coverage 2008-2023 The Brooklyn Rail Major reviews and artist essay 2018 Art in America Regular coverage The New York Times Featured coverage The New Yorker International art magazine coverage Frieze Multiple reviews 2014-2023 Hyperallergic 'Better than photography' feature 2021 The Boston Globe 2021 feature on O'Keeffe Museum residency The Paris Review - Documentary Coverage
- Note
- Multiple episodes featuring artist's practice
- Years
- 2010-2013
- Series
- Art21 New York Close Up
Gallery & Representation
- Fair Presence
- Works shown through gallery representation at major fairs, though specific fair participation not detailed in sources.
- Representation
- Gallery Evolution
- Stable long-term relationship with Sikkema Jenkins (17 years) indicates strong market management. Addition of James Fuentes Los Angeles in 2024 suggests geographic expansion strategy.
- Primary Galleries
Name Location Relationship Tier Sikkema Jenkins & Co. New York — Tier 1 - Major contemporary gallery Peter Freeman, Inc. Paris European representation Tier 1 - International gallery specializing in historical and contemporary work James Fuentes Los Angeles Recent West Coast presentation Tier 2 - Emerging significant contemporary gallery - Market Positioning
- Gallery positions artist as serious mid-career painter with strong institutional credentials and intellectual rigor. Emphasis on observational practice and conceptual depth distinguishes from purely decorative contemporary painting.
- Geographic Reach
- New York (primary), Paris (European), Los Angeles (West Coast expansion)
Josephine Halvorson's fundamentals are strong. But is the timing right for your collection? Egon analyzes fit against your aesthetic thesis, risk tolerance, and portfolio gaps.
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