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For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
2024 Ohio Artist Registry Juried Exhibition
Lisa Merida-Paytes
Visual ArtistCincinnati Ohio 45241 United StatesHome Ohio United States Home Phone: 5133680778 Birthday: April 29, 1969 Website: http://www.lisameridapaytes.com
Bio
Lisa Merida-Paytes holds a M.F.A. from the University of Cincinnati 1997 and B.F.A. from the Art Academy of Cincinnati 1991. Her work has been featured in exhibitions and publications regionally, nationally and internationally for 23 years.
During that time, she has taught at all levels throughout the Midwest and served in various professional positions which include, Gallery Director at FUNKe FIRED ARTS 2007-11 and Art Director / Founder of the Kennedy Heights Art Center in 2004. She was appointed a Co-Liaison for the NCECA Conference held in Cincinnati in March 2021 and served as a NCECA Board Member 2020 – 2021.
Recently, a solo exhibition of her work was showcased at Cincinnati Learning Collaborative and debuted her new Flux Series which is created from sculpting, weaving and casting paper, along with various mixed media materials. This new series moved on to the Lois and Richard Rosenthal’s Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio in March 2021.
Merida-Paytes served as a moderator and panelist for a 2019 NCECA Discussion she organized entitled, FOCUS: Inspiration Matters held in Minneapolis. In 2016-17, she was awarded a Summer Residency at Watershed, organized a group exhibition of that work in Portland, Oregon and wrote an article about the Residency and Exhibition that was published in Ceramics Ireland Magazine. She was awarded a AIA Summerfair Cincinnati Grant for the third time in her career (2018, 2006 & 2001).
Also, she published her own curriculum, Special Studio Teaching Manual Series: Preserving Memories with Paperclay, an Art-to ArtPalette Books publication. Her work is included in Aetwalk Magazine May 2021, 500 Figures in Clay, Volume II and The Best of 500 Ceramics: Celebrating a Decade in Clay, Lark Books publications, 2014 and 2012. Additionally, she has feature articles published in Ceramics Ireland, Issue 45, 2021 & Issue 39, 2017, Studio Ceramics: Advanced Techniques, (cover artist), The American Ceramics Society’s book 2010, Pottery Making Illustrated, July / August 2009 issue (cover artist), Art-to Art Palette Journal 2008, Raku, Pit & Barel, The American Ceramics Society’s book, 2007, Ceramics Monthly’s October 2006 issue and Lark Book’s, 500 Raku 2010 and 500 Animals 2006.
Artist Statement
My father’s taxidermist / slaughterhouse business was an overwhelming environment with powerful images of hanging carcasses of deer, piles of sawed-off animal feet and freezers full of animal hides. These images presented a lack of empathy for life to me as a child. My father’s vocation, was straightforward; permanent displays that are frozen in time.
My objective is to conjure the past, present and future in order to invoke the contemplation of our existence. My work has always been concerned with the wonder of origin and amending society’s exploitation and waste. Recently, I was diagnosed with an inherited autosomal dominant disease called Spinocerebellar Ataxia 5. This disease runs in my father’s family and has moved my work to investigate genetics, too. Specifically, this form of ataxia was found in one branch of Abraham Lincoln’s family and I am Lincoln’s cousin 7 generations removed.
As an artist with disabilities caused from Ataxia, a rare neurological disease that is progressive, affecting my ability to walk, talk, balance myself and use fine motor skills, my artwork not only considers the essential structure of skeletal or embryonic animal references but has become a vehicle to interpret transformative changes occurring in my body caused from the progression of the disease. Also, my work researches and brings awareness people living with disabilities while pushing the boundaries of contemporary art. My work discusses these concepts by focusing on movement’s copious flow, a manner of passage of the living body to one’s gait and gesture. This work drives examination and permits curiosity uncovering aspects of human nature and wonder of origin. These juxtaposed ideas reveal blurred distinctions between connections and dysfunction exhibited in multi-media multivalent invocations of the body.
Currently, my new Anamorphosis Series examines the gradual changes from one form to another. This work explores the many facets of human growth through the power of movement’s processes, concepts and materials that do not obviously relate to one another but when probed, inherent threads overarch, link, network and build transformative connections. The intent of my work is to explore the dysfunction of systems to communicate with the whole body. I find these references provocative and they offer me an opportunity to understand our own growth and decay.