Philip Martin Gallery is pleased to present, "Swamp Thistle," an exhibition of new works-on-paper by New York-based artist Lisa Sanditz. In over almost three decades of practice, Sanditz has made works of tremendous pictorial verve, exploring nature, humans and the profundity of their ongoing relation.
Lisa Sanditz’s works-on-paper invite the viewer to consider both the subject of the picture and its unexpected possibilities. Begun on site and finished in her studio, Sanditz’s works - as one critic pointed out - strike the middle ground between poetry and long form, allowing color, line and shape to read as the sensual, emotional and applied physical tools they are and - at the same time - use these tools of painting to open up new, unexpected narrative directions.
"For years the landscape has been a place for me to consider cultural and ecological histories through endless formal discoveries. These days, as I paint on site or reinterpret locations back in the studio, every gesture seems to shift from exploration to commemoration and consideration. I bring that visual, narrative, experiential data back to the studio in photos, sketches, and memories. Then I try to make a painting by synthesizing the information and carrying out formal decisions that address the site I am thinking about. The painting builds out of this information, but it also reacts to what’s happening visually on the canvas."
Sanditz describes herself as a hyper-accumulator, “in terms of mark-making, color, genre and even historical references.” Sanditz’s historical references can be “art or politics” or “personal narratives.” Noting that, “In the past, I have pulled apart those ideas. Now it feels harder to separate the personal narrative from the global narrative, which are more emotionally and politically intertwined.”
“I try to make the color emerge from the feeling of a place,” Lisa Sanditz writes. “Other times it may be more arbitrary, especially if a place is filled with contradictions.” The works in "Swamp Thistle” take botanical study as a jumping off point to a broad exploration of painterly color, line and space, all of it moving and shifting before the eye of the viewer - delighting emotion and intellect - while at the same time emphasizing human cognition and the power of looking.
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). Sanditz’s recent solo and group shows include, "Recent Work" (Alexandre Gallery at Independent Art Fair, 2025); “Hyperaccumulators” (Philip Martin Gallery, Los Angeles, 2024); “The Moth & The Thunderclap,” Modern Art (London, UK, 2023); “Evergreen,” Huxley Parlour Gallery (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.
“Lisa Sanditz: Swamp Thistle” is online February 4 - 18, 2026. All works can be viewed at the gallery.
Philip Martin Gallery is open Wednesday-Saturday 11-5 and Tuesdays by appointment. The gallery is located at 3342 Verdugo Road, Los Angeles CA 90065. For additional images and information please call 323-507-2037 or email info@ philipmartingallery.com.
