Lisa Sanditz’s mastery of paint and its materiality - especially when realized for expressive purposes - is clear in works emphasizing human cognition, emotion and the power of looking. Much of Sanditz’s work explores questions of how landscape, ecology, consumerism, and American identity collide in our increasingly fractured society. With dramatic colors, landscapes come alive and morph under the weight of consumer culture and industrialism--yellow mountains are obstructed by the parking lot of a casino, a barge cuts through a dark river in the dead of night. Sanditz lives and works in Upstate New York, an area with long art historical roots, mostly famous for the Hudson River school paintings, which offered a pastoral view of the natural landscape, often infused with a pervasive sentiment of Manifest Destiny. Sanditz’s work rebels against this colonial lineage, while simultaneously finding deep inspiration in the same lush landscapes—which have become littered with fast food chains, dollar stores and highways. It is human interaction with, and often overuse of, the natural world that captivates Sanditz and drives her work.
Lisa Sanditz (b. 1973, St. Louis, MO) received her BA degree from Macalester College (St. Paul, MN) and her MFA from the Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, NY). In April 2024, Sanditz's work will be the subject of a solo exhibition, "Hyperaccumulators," at Philip Martin Gallery. Sanditz's recent solo and group shows include "Pocket Universe," (Philip Martin Gallery, Los Angeles, 2023); “Evergreen," Huxley Parlour Gallery (London, UK, 2023); "The Moth & The Thunderclap," Modern Art (London, UK, 2023); and "Unnatural Nature: Post-Pop Landscapes,” Acquavella (New York, NY, 2022). Sanditz’s work has recently been featured in solo and group museum exhibitions at Orange County Museum of Art (Costa Mesa, CA); Torrance Art Museum (Torrance, CA); Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, AK); Cummer Museum of Art (Jacksonville, FL); Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (Kansas City, MO); Nerman Museum (Kansas City, MO); The Pizutti Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art (Columbus, OH); New Britain Museum of Art (New Britain, CT); and Weatherspoon Art Museum (Ontario, Canada). Sanditz’s selected solo and group gallery exhibitions include Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); Jonathan Ferrara Gallery (New Orleans, LA); Huxley Parlour Gallery (London, UK); Shoshana Wayne Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); CRG Gallery (New York, NY); ACME Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); Rodolphe Janssen Gallery (Brussels, Belgium); Feight + Volume Gallery (New York, NY); Girls Club Foundation (Fort Lauderdale, FL); Transmitter Gallery (Bushwick, NY); Steven Zevitas Gallery (Boston, MA); Pratt Steuben Gallery (Brooklyn, NY); and Southern Alberta Art Gallery (Alberta, Canada). Sanditz is included in major public collections including Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, TX); St. Louis Art Museum (St. Louis, MO); Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (Kansas City, MO); Smithsonian Museum of Art (Washington, D.C.); West Collection (Oaks, PA); Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA); and Herbert Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY). Sanditz’s work has been reviewed in publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Artforum, ArtNews, Time Out New York, The Brooklyn Rail, BOMB Magazine, Hyperallergic, ArtPulse, New American Paintings and Modern Painters. Sanditz lives and works in Hudson Valley, New York.