Statement

Profoundly hard of hearing since the age of two, I have spent much of my life in silent observation, studying others and my relationship to them. Discovering abstract expressionism at twenty-seven was a turning point, allowing me to embrace an intuitive process and develop my own visual vocabulary.

Working across painting and sculpture, I create biomorphic forms that hover between the bodily, the psychological, and the absurd. Through tension, sexuality, and humor, my work explores how people connect, resist confinement, and assert themselves. Each piece becomes a charged encounter - a space where vulnerability, identity, and human interaction are held in uneasy, sometimes playful balance.

Spotlight on seven New Jersey non-figurative artists RALPH J. BELLANTONI, CORRESPONDENT 12:01 a.m. EST January 1, 2016
Lisbin incorporates random odd materials into her organic sculptures--anything from rose petals to peppercorns, cloves to bathmats. Her biomorphic forms twist, spiral, bend and undulate under the impact of invisible pressures.
“My sculpture and painting are both concerned with abstract forms that have a human quality, and focus on relationships,” said Lisbin. “Line, gesture, materials and colors become metaphors for the delicate elements interaction generates.” Lisbin explores the physical and emotional effects of social contact by manipulating materials, evolving forms, and intuiting imagery. “It’s important to understand how we relate to others,” she said. “My images function on a variety of levels to highlight these experiences, from humor to sexuality.”

Curator’s Statement from Nancy Einreinhofer, Director of the Galleries at William Paterson University, Paterson, NJ

Susan Lisbin’s exhibit of paintings and sculpture mix materials and metaphors in a playful but impassioned manner. Her ideas, while finding expression in diverse forms, are unified by an unmistakable signature approach. This consistent grammar governs the compositional elements from the canvas to the paper works to the found and improvised materials in her sculpture. It revolves around the eccentric forms and their relationship to the ground and to each other.

Curator's Statement from John J. McGurk’s quote from "Cast, Tint, Shade" at the Mikhail Zakin Gallery at the Art School of Old Church, Demarest, NJ

On the other extreme is the work of Susan Lisbin. Using contrasting color as her departure point, Lisbin creates deeply personal paintings of other worldly bodies and objects. Highly abstract, Lisbin has created compositions full of gesture and hard lines, clearly demarcating the role of the artist as producer and creator of myth and metaphor.

Conversation with Gavin Walker and Susan Lisbin, Walker is an artist and writer, Sidney, Australia

There is a rational truth that can be captured in language. But there is another truth, it lies outside articulation, which can be touched, stirred, ignited by visual and aural art. It's a truth related to love, imagination, generosity, freedom and courage. It's felt. it energizes, it gives. It encourages us to explore, rather than remain entrenched. That's your art. How anyone evaluates that - no, the art evaluates them…

Yes, I write. Words are like visceral music. Feeling and thought (no matter how abstract) have their origins in the pre-word place. Writing is the deepest listening, listening with inner ears and the palms of finest fingers - it's hard to hear the same thing twice, nor hear it the same way twice - but the truth pretty much has a recognizable melody to it. You know this too, which is why your art has wonderful variety but is always recognizably yours.