
Holding Down the Corner, 2024, oil on canvas, 50 in x 40 in
(JERSEY CITY, NJ) -- New Jersey City University Visual Arts Gallery presents a solo exhibition by Johanna Foster from May 14-28, 2026. Entitled "Formidable Women, Dangerous Times," it presents a powerful body of figurative paintings that summons the defiant spirit of fierce women in her communities, real and imagined, who have inspired courage and perseverance in devastating times.
In a series of evocative portraits that range from larger-than-life renderings to small scale works, Johanna invites the viewer to bear witness to women’s capacity for personal and political resistance, and offers a space for connection, recognition, and healing.
Johanna Foster, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology and the Helen Bennett McMurray endowed chair of Social Ethics in the Department of Political Science and Sociology at Monmouth University. Since Foster began her MFA program at NJCU in 2022, she has often exhibited her work in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, and farther afield in Arizona and California.
In 2024, her work was among the twenty pieces chosen from over 1,000 submissions for a year-long digital exhibition in Newark Liberty International Airport. Foster's work has also been exhibited at the Montclair Art Museum as part of the 2024 New Jersey Arts Annual.
NJCU Visual Arts Gallery is located on the Lower Level of the Visual Arts Building at 100 Culver Avenue in Jersey City, New Jersey.



