Joy Whalen received her BFA at Columbia College Chicago in 2005 and her MFA at Pratt Institute in 2007. Whalen's current body of work involves a combination of multimedia drawing works on paper, performance video and installation. She has exhibited extensively throughout New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and has participated in multiple international exhibitions and film screenings. In October 2007, Whalen was a core performer in Memorial Gestures at the Chicago Cultural Center, curated and choreographed by Ernesto Pujol. She later produced and edited in collaboration with Ernesto Pujol a short film documenting the experience of Memorial Gestures. She was the recipient of a 2008 Brooklyn Art Council DCA Re-grant award for a public performance based video project, as well as a 2010 DCA Re-grant award for, a year-long drawing project. Her video work is part of the Souvenirs from Earth television broadcast program, Cologne, Germany. Whalen lives, works and exhibits in New York City.