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
2024 Lore Degenstein Gallery 15th Annual Figurative Art Exhibition, 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)
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
My painting practice is focused on two related efforts: a body of work that examines the genre of the female nude and a series of portraits focused on girlhood.
As a female painter rooted in feminism, I am interested in how painted images of women build upon an entrenched history of female representation. The female nude genre in particular retains popular acceptance as an indulgence in fantasy even as, paradoxically, it perpetuates narratives that make women’s bodies vulnerable to subjugation. I hope to create paintings that recontextualize and transcend old messaging.
Equally, my work has a foothold in realism: paintings are developed from life studies engaging models. I look to create a realism that reflects the agency of contemporary women, their hopes and trepidations. I hope to engage the viewer’s gaze by creating paintings charged with beauty and nuanced meaning that are equally disquieting: the painted figures perform superficial roles within pseudo-surrealistic environments. I hope to compel audiences to wonder about their own viewing of the female nude as well as the impact of representation on actual women’s lives.
Approach to Painting
Each canvas begins with the understanding that the finished work arrives out of process: outcomes 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.