Joan Ross was the winner of the 2017 Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of NSW, and was a finalist again in 2018 and 2019. In 2018 Joan Ross won the Mordant Family Virtual Reality Commission – the most important commission in the country in this new medium. In 2020, Ross was commissioned by the Art Gallery of NSW to produce a major new work to adorn the new Sydney Modern extension whilst under construction. Ross has been the recipient of numerous awards, grants and prizes, including the winner of the inaugural 2017 Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, Sydney.
Ross has exhibited extensively over the last three decades, in 2016 and 2017 her work was included in Today Tomorrow Yesterday and Recent Acquisitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Tracks and Traces: Contemporary Australian Art at The Negev Museum of Art in Israel, as well as exhibitions at the National Gallery of Australia, UQ Art Museum and numerous other state and national institutions.
Ross is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia; Parliament House; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, The Art Gallery of New South Wales; and the City of Sydney as well as strong representation throughout multiple regional galleries and museums.