Joy Episalla (born in 1957 in Bronxville, New York)[1] is an American visual artist known for her hybrid photographic and sculptural works.
Episalla was born in Bronxville, and grew up in Yonkers, New York. She received a BFA degree from the California College of the Arts. Following graduation she moved to the East Village of New York City.[1]
In the 1990s she became involved with AIDS activism, and worked with groups such as ACT UP, fierce pussy and The Marys. Episalla has been a member of the fierce pussy art collective from 1991 to the present.[2] Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art[3] and other museums and galleries. In 2003 she received a fellowship from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation.[4]
Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Centre Pompidou,[5] the Rose Art Museum,[6] the Victoria and Albert Museum (with fierce pussy) [7]among other venues.
Her oral history is held in the Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art.[1]