Lisa Maria Ortiz produces paintings that put the viewer on intimate terms with her subjects, making work that deals with the documentation of events and questions and how these can be presented.
Her subjects are given a stage to shout to the world that they want to be seen.
People on the fringe of society that merge with the onlooker’s gaze. Her figures are sometimes disassociated from their original meaning through her method of painting in layers and leaving the initial drawing showing, making the whole process visible.
Creating the sense of a lingering hidden world, Ortiz enjoys making works in which the actual event has still to take place or has just ended: moments built of atmosphere and suspense, focusing on how life extends beyond its own subjective limits and tells a story about the effects of social and sexual interaction. The images almost whisper ‘look at me’.
Lisa Maria is interested in the binaries we continually reconstruct between Self and Other: to feel, suffer and love ourselves and each other seems to be a constant battle of the mind and an intense dialogue involving mental health. This is what inspires her to paint.
Lisa Maria Ortiz was born in Hammersmith, London England in 1979.
She lives and works in Kingston, Greater London.
Lisa Maria has been painting professionally alongside her job in the care sector and has been teaching since graduation. She has been painting private commissions and running an art group for seniors for many years. She is an emerging artist.
Education
The Surrey Institute of Art & Design
Ba Hons Fine Art – Painting 2002
Brooklands College
GNVQ Advanced Art & Design – Specialised in Painting
A Level Drawing
Group Shows
Home - Green Door Gallery, Belgium 2023
Peek a Boo - Cass Art, Kingston
L’age D’or Surrealist Group Show - Crypt Gallery, 2023
Moving Art – Robert Phillips Gallery, 2022
Collective - CHM Gallery, 2022
Moving Art – Robert Phillips Gallery, 2021
Coombe Art Collective – Coombe Hill Manor Gallery, 2021
Fifty-two -Pride in London, 2020
(Not) Summer Exhibition – Royal Academy of Art, 2020
Group show – Barbican Open Arts Prize, 2020
Virtual show – Leatherhead Theatre, 2020
Moving Art – Robert Phillips Gallery, 2020
Moving Art – Esher Civic Centre, 2020
Love – Leatherhead Theatre, 2020
Coombe Art Collective – Coome Hill Manor Gallery, 2019
Moving Art – Robert Phillips Gallery, 2019
Moving Art – Esher Civic Centre, 2019
