Joyce Pensato (b. 1941, Brooklyn, NY, d. 2019, New York, NY) lived and worked in Brooklyn, New York and studied at the New York Studio School. Pensato was best known for her large-scale paintings which employed a familiar cast of cartoon characters, including Homer Simpson, Groucho Marx, Mickey Mouse, and a character the artist called “The Juicer.” Pensato was commited to her baleful transmutation of American cartoon culture - employing her fast, assured, and gestural hand- to shed light on the arguable darkness lurking within our familiar Pop iconography.

Joyce Pensato was the recipient of many awards including The Robert de Niro, Sr. Prize (2013); The Award of Merit Medal for Painting from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2012); Anonymous Was A Woman Award (2010); the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award (1997; Guggenheim Fellowship (1996); New York Foundation for the Arts (1995); and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation (1992).

Her work has been exhibited widely, including solo exhibitions and projects at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2017); Kunstraum Innsbruck, Austria (2016); Museum of Modern Art, Fort Worth, TX (2015); and Santa Monica Museum of Art, CA (2013), which traveled to the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, MO the same year.  Group exhibitions include the Boca Raton Museum of Art, FL (2017); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2017); Speed Museum of Art, Louisville, KY (2011); Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (2000) and the St. Louis Art Museum, MO (1994).

Her work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Dallas Museum of Art; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and the FRAC des Pays de la Loire, France.