he Montag Gallery at the JEA is pleased to announce the opening of
Joanna Silver’s solo exhibition, “Candy Coated Memories,” on Monday, June 17, 2024. The show
includes over 14 prints and paintings Silver has worked on during the past two years as a painting
MFA candidate at SCAD. The opening reception is July 11, 5 – 7pm, and the show will run through
July 31, 2024.
As a child in Miami in the 1980s and ‘90s, Silver spent a lot of time with her two sisters playing with toys.
They had everything girls from that era could want — bins full of Barbies and costumes, a Little Tikes
playhouse, a princess castle, a trampoline, and a wooden swing set in the yard. In her paintings and
prints, she returns to these objects, as well as the interiors of houses she viewed while searching for a
home as an adult.
She does so because she realizes that these toys set up the expectation that her life, as a girl, would be
dominated by perfect houses, pink clothes, babies, and a handsome prince. Of course, life has been
more complicated than that, and the promises inherent in those toys have often come with heartbreak.

Silver meditates on the fantasy through the deliberate and painstaking process of painting and print-
making. Her aesthetic, which is marked by vibrant colors, clean lines and space delineated into neat

grids, is also redolent of her childhood in Miami. Color is everywhere. In the art deco architecture,
flowers, landscaping, pools, bathing suits and antique malls. Her entire childhood, Silver sat in the
back of her parents’ car, and absorbed that palette, which now expresses itself in her work.
Silver’s Jewish family, who immigrated to the United States from Russia, Poland, Spain and Turkey in the
early 20th century, owned stores that sold shoes, furniture, and accessories. Silver never wore black a
single day until she moved out of her parents’ house and could buy her own clothes. Merchandising was
good for the family business, and looking your best was the ultimate goal in all aspects of life.
Approaching 40, Silver feels anxious about the time she’s afraid she’s wasted. She left behind her
family business to become an artist. She wears black almost all the time. She and her husband
recently placed over 18 bids on houses in Savannah and lost every single one. They live in a rental.
They’ve been trying to conceive a child. She takes all the disappointment and lost opportunity, and
puts it in her art. The paintings look simple but take months to complete. They’re full of layers and as
complicated as her life has been.

MISSION STATEMENT OF THE JEA
The JEA serves as the meeting place for the entire Jewish and general Savannah Community to
build relationships with all groups concerned with enriching community life.
Jewish Educational Alliance’s Montag Gallery announces a new
show by artist Joanna Silver, Candy Coated Memories

For media inquiries, please contact
Katie Griffith, Arts and Ideas Coordinator
Jewish Educational Alliance
(912) 355-8111
www.savannahjea.org/artsideas