Lisa Creskey

Lisa Creskey is a ceramic artist and painter who explores the visual storytelling potential of the clay medium through sculpture and installation. Investigating themes of nature, history and time, Lisa creates immersive worlds in which to look for connections and to pose questions on essential concerns for humanity and the environment.

My primary drive as a visual artist has been that of story telling from a personal point of departure or connection. To establish this connection, I often use historical documents and artifacts as a visual point of departure in my work.  As I have spent most of my life in the country, responding to nature and human dependence on the land are the strongest themes in my work. 

When Horses Walked on Water was presented at the Craft Ontario Gallery in Toronto and explored the potential of clay as a sculptural medium as well as a painted surface, navigating the concepts of land, landscape, and belonging. Incorporating natural plant fibres and minerals found in the landscape further articulates the natural history of the Toronto area. Through clay, the work investigates how collective identity evolves with our sense of belonging to a landscape, and how we manufacture that belonging by transforming nature.

Match Installation at the Centre d’Exposition Art-Image de la Maison de la Culture de Gatineau which took place September 9 – October 23 2016. 

The history of the Gatineau region is presented through the figurehead Canadian boxer Gaétan Hart who was born in Buckingham. Each figure is hand-cut wood, burnt, pigmented and carved, and becomes a display case for the porcelain vignettes specific to the region. In this collection of pieces, the artist explores the subject of work as a force that fashions culture by examining documents, images, material remains, and architecture from the small town where the artist spent some of her formative years. Framing the work in a visual exploration of the manifestation of the boxing sport as transformative on the human figure, the artist allows the town’s emotional investment in their boxing hero Gaétan Hart to become the central theme. The work also explores the lucrative industry and infrastructure at the time.

 

Pression atmosphérique installation at Galerie Montcalm from August 26th - October 10th, 2021. 

Due to its feeding behaviour, the great blue heron has been used as a tool to assess bioaccumulative toxins present in the environment.

Sculptural installation Atmospheric Pressure contrasts the industrial constructions of the region's forest history and ancient nesting sites. Through works with surrealist connotations, Lisa Creskey, ceramic artist, questions the relationships that are forged between culture, industry and the natural world.

Using clay, she tells, in Atmospheric Pressure, the imagined story of a colony of great blue herons which forage along the rivers of the region. The artist thus presents us with a world parallel to that which arose from the history of logging and the wood industry in the Ottawa-Gatineau region.

lisa creskey chouette

lisa creskey chouette detail

lisa creskey chouette detail

In 2023, Lisa Creskey installed Chouette on the Sentiel Culturel in Gatineau for the duration of the summer and fall, on the corner of Hôtel-de-Ville and Promenade du Portage. The surface of the larger-than-life snowy owl is made up of the artist's own handmade, hand-painted tiles. The Snowy Owl, Quebec’s official bird, is sheltering her baby under her wing, surrounded by purple irises and wild garlic.

In 2024, three of Lisa Creskey's large-scale works -- Chouette, the fountain La Vita Nuova, and  Héron du Lac Leamy -- were installed at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, for the exhibition Resonance

LICR ccag heron ceiling install

Lisa Creskey fountain install CCAG 2024

Lisa Creskey fountain face

Lisa Creskey fountain full view

 

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