Lisa Marsh is a fine arts painter living and working in Los Angeles CA and founder of SOPA Studios, a studio space and collective located in South Pasadena
Bio / Artist Statement
Exhibitions
2025 Contmporary Art Survey, The Lincoln Center, Fort Collins, CO, Juror Steven Yazzie, Community Scholar University of Denver CO
2025 A Woman’s Place Juried Show, Ebell of Los Angeles, Jurors Andi Campognone, Curator, Museum of Art and History (MOAH) Lancaster, Jennifer Li, Art Advisor and Writer
2024 15th Annual Figurative Art Exhibition, Lore Degenstein Gallery, Susquehanna University, PA, Juror Brian Kreydatus, William & Mary College
2023 LAAA Open Survey Exhibition: Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA, Juror Andi Campognone, Director, MOAH Museum of Art and History
2020 LAAA Open Survey Exhibition: Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA, Juror Shana Nys Dambrot, Arts Editor LA Weekly / Flaunt / Art & Cake / Artillery
2020 Collective Consciousness, The Front Gallery, New Orleans LA, Juror Ron Bechet, Professor of Art, Xavier University of Louisiana, Board Member, Joan Mitchell Foundation, Antenna Works and Ogden Museum of Southern Art
2019 Chelsea International Fine Art Competition, Agora Gallery, New York NY, Jurors Arnold J. Kemp, Dean of Graduate Studies, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Alaina Claire Feldman, Director of the Mishkin Gallery, The CUNY Baruch’s Contemporary Art Gallery, and Kentaro Totsuka, Director of hpgrp Gallery Tokyo
2019 California Centered Printmaking Exhibition, Merced Multicultural Arts Center, Merced CA
2019 UCLA Extension Annual, UCLA Extension Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (Recipient of Award of Distinction)
2017 TarFest Exhibition, Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles CA
Publications
2021 Studio Visit Magazine, Volume 47, Curated by George Kinghorn, Director of University of Maine Museum of Art
Professional Experience
SOPA Studios Collective, South Pasadena, CA, Owner/Operator of Studio Facility, Gallery and Artist Collective, 2009-Present
Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825, Los Angeles CA, Member
statement
In my work I look to move evolve representation that reflects lived experience and explores how today’s painted image builds upon a deeply encoded history when it comes to depicting the female form.
I am interested in how depictions of women within art build upon a history of representation that is deeply entrenched in our collective psyche. I am deeply inspired by the history of painting, however, my work is very much centered in contemporary lived experience and studio practice. I paint figures that contemplate my/our place in an uncertain future.
My work explores how today’s painted image builds upon a deeply encoded history when it comes to depicting the female form. Using studies from life, I look to create a realism that reflects the agency of women and that can help re-contextualize and transcend old messaging. My hope is to engage the viewer with nuanced meaning that is both hopeful and disquieting, evolving new representations that reflect the realities of our lived experience.
I host twice-monthly uninstructed life drawing sessions for a local community of artists employing professional models. My studio, “SOPA Studios,” is additionally open to the public for occasional exhibitions and music events.
Approach to Painting
Each canvas begins with the understanding that the finished work arrives out of process: outcomes are determined by instinctive use of hand and brush while constructing images concerned with human experience, beauty in the painted surface, and the unique potential of visual art to convey nuanced meaning.