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
2026 Women's Work: Women Artists Making Their Mark, O’Hanlan Center, Mill Valley, CA. Jurors Donna Seager (Seager Gray Gallery San Rafael) and Artist Irene Bee Kain
2026 Framing the Future Juried Show, Ebell of Los Angeles, Jurors Dominique Clayton (gallerist), Shana Nys Dambrot (art critic), and Heidi Johnson (HIJINX Arts)
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
I am interested to explore how portraiture developed from life model studies relates to a deeply encoded history of image-making, particularly when it comes to portrayal of the female form. In my practice I strive to create a painterly realism that reflects the agency and lived experience of women and girls. My aim is to challenge and expand narrow definitions of the feminine, contributing to revisal of old messaging.
I host twice-monthly life-drawing sessions and monthly life-painting sessions featuring professional models for a local community of artists. My paintings are alternatively developed from life or from charcoal studies created during drawing sessions.
Approach to Painting
Each canvas begins with the understanding that the finished work arrives from process and a lifetime of drawing practice. Outcomes are determined by instinctive use of hand and brush, and concerns that center on human experience, beauty in the painted surface, and the unique potential of visual art to convey nuanced meaning.