Lisa Nigro

Artist Statement

My work includes sculpture, large-scale and interactive with flame effects, found object assemblages, hand-built clay forms, map paintings and drawings. The common denominator within my large-scale works is that they are accessible as an interactive experience. I utilize salvaged steel and found objects within my practice and place importance on incorporating the elements earth, air, fire, water, metal, and wood into my art. Within my large-scale works I primarily focus on recreating mythic creatures and their stories, and it is important that these works are accessible as an interactive experience. The audience is allowed to become a part of the sculpture and be with it as if in one’s living room or at a playground. This contrasts highly with the more intimate content of my assemblage works which include ceramic clay components. My process within both these genres is dedicated to up cycling and repurposing, which often incorporates the use of refurbished steel drums and interesting objects found at flea markets and in steel scrapyards.

My use of maps as a canvas for gouache, acrylic and ink paintings hold significance to me partially due to the current lack for using them since the invention of the GPS, as well as our constant use of cell phones. I miss viewing the BIG picture, mapping out my journey, finding new gems hidden in the roadmap’s words. Yet my obsession with finding and using maps also stems from the experiences I had in my youth, of our family constantly being uprooted by our father to move one state or another across the US every year or two. These map paintings serve as a visual memory page pulled from the journal in my mind of the places we lived and what occurred in my life during those times. In creating these map paintings I use language of symbology only known to me, secretive and mysterious, but open to the possibility of interpretation by others. The tight and concise style is a leftover influence from my background working as a graphic designer in Boston and San Francisco years ago.

My most recent series “Heart Served on a Silver Platter” is a development of and experimentation with the clay heart in a new context. Inspired by the old idiom of something being given on a silver platter, and implying affluence, the series speaks of classism in history, societal constructs versus individual needs as well as woman’s place within the society and how it is still in a state of flux. The work further references the ancient Mayan’s tearing out of the heart as sacrificial offer, and at the same time retracing a connection to the biblical story of John the Baptist’s head served on a platter.

Brought up Catholic, yet no longer a practitioner, I am naturally drawn to relics, sculptures, and more specifically to icons of the feminine found in religious imagery. I have a fascination for myths and stories surrounding Deity and Goddess worship in religions worldwide. To date, the iconic religious flaming heart has been an inspiration and has served as the main context for creating my small altar-like assemblages. I wish to develop this religious iconography further to include the heart encased within the female figure. I am determined to combine my skills with steel construction and fabrication, hand-built clay objects, parts cast in bronze and other techniques to create figurative sculptures, thus forming a marriage between all my art practices. These new works will be more demonstrative of a study of the hierarchy within religion as observed through iconic imagery pertaining to women.