Statement

 

Memory and energy inform my artistic practice, these two ethereal concepts provide space to inquire introspectively about experiences that have shaped my present awareness. I am curious about the ways my younger self navigated power dynamics or suppressed desires. I linger in childhood memories searching for clues to familial connections while seeking evidence that distinguishes me, the "sane" sister, from my schizophrenic younger sister. The answers to these inquiries are less critical than the process of liberating these experiences from literal storytelling into abstract visual expressions.

 

I make large-scale abstract, monochromatic black paintings to translate personal narratives and their enigmatic energies. The employment of abstraction and a singular color palette serve as intentional tools of extraction to produce paintings that embody the subconscious. The deliberate use of black acrylic paint, poured over raw canvas, creates an atmosphere of blackness that allows light and dark to reveal a spectrum of spiritual, emotional, and psychological energies. The activation of these energies through gestural mark-making and emotive line qualities, while geometric and organic shapes become ciphers for my body, is a testament to the meticulous and thoughtful process of my work:  as a hexagon I break a curse for my own singleness; two geometric shapes, my sister and I, float among gestural blackness, each side multiplying to reveal evidence of our lived experiences. 

 

While I acknowledge the historical reference of black to race, my earlier works investigated collective American narratives of racism, segregation, and anti-miscegenation, my current works take a different approach. In these works, I designate black as a contemplative space. It becomes a medium through which I explore the complexities of my human experience. I lean into autobiographical interpretations, scaling the painting itself to my body's height and width with arms spread wide, taking up space in places on my behalf.

 

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Biography

 

Lisa Diane Wedgeworth is a Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary artist employing painting, performance and video as creative processes to interpret energy as an investigation of personal and collective narratives.

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Recent exhibitions include Time Being (Wonzimer), Within a Realm (Tyler Park Presents), Incantation (Orange County Center for Contemporary Art) and the 24 hour performance, For Baby's Baby (Transformative Arts). She has been invited to perform at Williams College and Northwestern University and exhibited video at the Nan Rae Gallery (Woodbury University), the artist run space AWOL and at Spilt Milk (Edinburgh Scotland).
 

She is a recipient of the COLA Individual Artist Fellowship (2020), the Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellowship (2018) and the Georgia Fee Artist Residency (2016, France). She has lectured about her work at colleges and universities in both Southern and Northern California while teaching as a part-time lecturer at colleges and universities in Southern California. A cultural producer, Wedgeworth exhibited emerging artists in her studio-based project space PS 2920 between 2015 - 2016 and produces the public platform, Conversations About Abstraction to share the voices of abstract artists historically excluded from the Western canon.

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Her work is included in private collections and at the California African American Museum and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Recent acquisitions include the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and The Harper Museum.