PLAYGROUND

Lisa Marie Barber’s dense, large-scale ceramic assemblages command attention, spilling vivid imagery and bright colors across the gallery floor. Layering and accumulating enigmatic shapes, figures, and floral imagery, she creates environments bursting with playful, celebratory energy. Barber’s aesthetic sensibility is rooted in Mexican folk art and the Latin American Catholic shrines of her heritage and upbringing in Tucson, Arizona, and her fluid, deft touch highlights the soft plasticity of clay. The rich ornamentation, color, and abundance in her work expresses reverence, gratitude, and joy.

Lisa Marie Barber

Raised in Tucson, Arizona, Lisa Marie Barber earned her MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a full Professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, where she teaches ceramics, art foundations, and studio seminars, and works as the Community Liaison in the Arts. Previously Barber worked as a university and youth art instructor in the San Francisco Bay area, including positions at Santa Clara University and the Palo Alto Art Center. Barber has exhibited widely throughout the U.S., received numerous honors and artist’s residencies, and has led workshops and outreach activities from New York to California.