1940 to 1959

During the decades of 1940 to 1959, Biala re-establishing herself in New York City. She becomes a fixture among the rising avant-garde artists living and working around Washington Square. She meets and marries Daniel “Alain” Brustlein, a noted cartoonist for The New Yorker.

In October 1947, Biala and Brustlein board the de Grasse, one of the first transatlantic ships to sail to Europe after the war. They settle in Paris but begin almost immediately traveling throughout Europe, encountering the histories of cities such as Rome and Pompeii.

In 1949, Biala is awarded the Prix de la Critique, shared between André Minaux.

In April 1950, Biala is one of only three women—the other two being Louise Bourgeois and Hedda Sterne—invited to attend a private and exclusive discussion known as the Artist’s Session at Studio 35. The premise of the forum is to discuss formally and among friends, the ideas defining the current movement in abstract art in New York. In addition to Biala, the group included, James Brooks, Willem de Kooning, Jimmy Ernest, Herbert Ferber, Adolph Gottlieb, Hans Hofmann, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Pousette-Dart, Ad Reinhardt, David Smith, among others. During the discussion, Biala voiced her reservations about the direction of painting in New York:

“Like many of us, I was raised on the notion of ‘painterliness’—that what is most moving in painting is... its painterly qualities. But when I think of the art that I love—for example, the art of Spain, with its passion and noblesse—I wonder if ‘painterliness’ is not meant to serve something beyond itself...”

In April 1956, a feature article, Biala Paints a Picture, appears in Art News with photographs by Rudy Burckhardt.

Her work during this period continues along her personal reinterpretation of traditional landscapes, still-life, and portraiture. A transition from a Cubist approach to space to a more painterly and gestural pulse is apparent. The Whitney Museum of American Art purchases Black Stove for its permanent collection in 1955, her first museum acquisition.

Solo Exhibitions include: Bignou Gallery, New York (’41, ’42, ’43, ‘44, ’45, ‘47); Milwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee (’47); Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris (’48, ’49, 51, ’54, ’56, ’57, ’58); Stable Gallery, New York (’53, ‘55, ’57)

Group Exhibitions include: “Whitney Annual,” Whitney Museum of Art (’46, ’55, ’56, ‘59); “Twentieth Biennial Exhibition,” The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC  (’47, ‘57); “Les Surindépendants,” Paris (’48, ’49, ’50, ’51, ‘52); “Prix de la Critique,” La Galerie Saint-Placide, Paris (’50); “The 145th Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture,” Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia (’50); “Salon de Mai,” Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris (’52); “Biala, Viera da Silva and Vera Pagava,” National Museum, Oslo, Norway (’52); Stable Annual, New York (’53, ’54); "Janice Biala, Edwin Dickinson and Jack Tworkov," HCE Gallery, Provincetown (’59)