Joan Balzar (Canadian, 1928-2016) is recognized as a key figure in the development of abstract painting on the West Coast in the 1960s, a time when Vancouver emerged as a city of increased energy and experimentation in visual art. A graduate of the Vancouver School of Art, Balzar adopted a vocabulary of large-scale, optical, hard-edge paintings, often including a neon element. These paintings were meant to create excitement in the retina. She was dedicated to the exploration of abstract art, spatial illusion and the psychology of colour, which stayed as a constant through her practice. Balzar incorporated an interest in mass-produced industrial materials, while continuing to explore the possibilities of psychological manipulation through colour, light and spatial illusion. The result is work that moves beyond the conventional frame of painting, attempting to create a more experiential relationship, strongly related to the ideas of Marshall McLuhan and the psychedelic movement.