Joanna Pousette-Dart was born in New York City in 1947. Her mother, Evelyn Gracey, was a poet, and her father, Richard Pousette-Dart, a painter. In the 1960s, Pousette-Dart left for Vermont to study art in the creative crucible known as Bennington College. She was put off, however, by the art department’s stress on formalist approaches, and found herself drawn to the idea of paintings as objects rather than illusions. Pousette-Dart became known for her shaped canvases. Her debut exhibition in Shanghai features new works on multi-panel curved canvases. —Elena Clavarino