American born artist Lisa Petsu (b.1973) received her B.F.A from the School of Visual Arts, NYC (1995) and her M.F.A from Bard College, NY (1999) where she received the Elaine de Kooning Memorial Scholarship in painting. She creates idiosyncratic abstract paintings, sculpture and installation art that is highly textural, using objects and narratives from her lived experience. Her work entertains the edge between the art space of galleries and domestic architecture of personal life. Cultivating a spiritual connection to her materials Lisa considers the accumulation of color, time, and emotion in physical layers and moments of imperfect beauty on the canvas.

“The vantage of Petsu’s contentious “life of imperfection” gives rise to “ugly beauty” an intricate reality in which all things do not neatly fit” – Arlene Raven, curator

The artist combines her intuitive process, emotional presence, and the language of abstraction to create a work of art that feels perfectly imperfect, resonating with her experience in the world.

Early in her art career, she was honored as Ida Applebroog’s protégé in the show titled, “The Choice” and her work was reviewed in the New York Times and NY Arts magazine. She received an emerging artist grant from Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art in Newark, New Jersey. Her work has been shown in various galleries and exhibitions. Lisa has been a public-school art educator for 26 years and recently became a certified yoga teacher after overcoming a serious medical condition.  She is the mother of 4 children and lives in Clifton, New Jersey.