Lisa Macchi

Lisa Macchi is an abstract expressionist working in a modern impressionistic painting/collage style. She draws her inspiration from nature, relationships, and the contrasting depths between shapes, colors, and space.

She received a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Tyler School of Fine Arts at Temple University in Pennsylvania in 1966. During the 70’s, she attended the Art Students League in New York City where she studied with renowned modernist Knox Martin and Peter Golfinopoulos. She was a scholarship student for several years at the Provincetown Workshop on Cape Cod and worked with Leo Manso and Victor Candell. Her work was shown in various group shows, and she was a runner up for a renowned year abroad offered by the Art Students League.

Lisa had a loft in New York and immersed herself into the New York art scene. She found she possessed a keen eye and developed a powerful sense of real and surreal in contrast with her existence with nature and received the beginning of some recognition.

After several years, she came to a crossroad. Understanding that art is a full-time commitment, she realized early on she was not ready to live with the struggle that was ahead of her. While her love for the arts never left her, Lisa left the New York art scene and took a hiatus from her art. She went on to become a successful, highly regarded business woman, and to have a family. In 2012 she was ready to start painting again, devoting her energy full time to her art, Lisa opened a studio in Bedminster, NJ. In 2018, she moved to Palmyra VA just outside of Charlottesville VA and juried into the renowned McGuffey Art Center where she currently has a studio.

Lisa’s work has been shown at Riverside Studio in Pottersville, NJ, Connextions in Easton, PA, New Century Artist Gallery in Chelsea NYC, Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, NJ, Hive Gallery in Chester, NJ, LBI Arts Foundation in Loveladies, NJ, Contour 19 in Boston, MA, Solace Gallery in Surf City, NJ, Somerset Art Association in Pluckeim, NJ, Crossroad Gallery Richmond, VA, McGuffey Art Center in Charlottesville, VA, and Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville, VA among others.

“My work is always tied to nature, either in the landscape or as a gesture of the natural world. The work itself is process driven. My enjoyment of the physicality of painting and the interaction with the medium is what inspires me. What excites me the most is applying the paint to the surface and incorporating elements like bits and pieces of torn paper to the surface. The paper, becomes an single element that requires me to react and make it part of the whole. It challenges me to see and make it work. Insecurity subsides, and self-consciousness fades away as I explore the creation of the work. I become both the participant and the observer.”

- Lisa Macchi