Joy Feasley combines painting and installation creating environments steeped in alternative belief systems (the occult, the Shaker religion, the dreamworld) that reinterpret ideas of the sublime, depicting nature as both ominous and life-affirming. Moving between abstraction and representation often in the same work, Feasley’s paintings incorporate sacred geometries as well as personal narratives. She often works collaboratively with her husband, Paul Swenbeck. In 2018, Feasley and Swenbeck created a large-scale environment for the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI, titled Out Out Phosphene Candle and in 2021 they were commissioned by the Kohler to create restrooms based on elements of this exhibition for the museum’s new building.

She has shown at venues including the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Moore College of Art, the Temple Gallery, the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Vox Populi, all in Philadelphia, PA; Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR; Columbia College, Chicago, IL; LUMP Gallery and Contemporary Art Museum, Raleigh, NC; and Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland. Her work is in the collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the West Collection. She has been in residence at the Acadia Summer Arts Program, Bar Harbor, ME and at the 18th Street Arts Center Santa Monica, CA. In 2011 she was awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.