Throughout her career, which spans five decades, Joan Balzar's commitment to abstraction, spatial illusion, and the psychological manipulation of colour and light has remained constant.

Balzar was widely recognized as a key figure in the development of abstract painting on the West Coast in the 1960's, a time when Vancouver emerged as a city of increased energy and experimentation in visual art.

Like the Minimalists, who introduced arrangements of manufactured goods into the gallery, Balzar was interested in the new aesthetic of industrial materials such as neon tubing and plastics. But unlike the minimalists, she never abandoned painting, rather seeing neon light as a model for new optical possibilities and an expanded notion of the medium.

Balzar's current work and direction remains vital, and relevent within the contemporary milieu of abstract painting.