Lisa Cristinzo (She/her/Beast) is a queer painter and installation artist, and a first-generation Canadian settler living in T’karonto on Turtle Island. Cristinzo’s large-scale painting installations traverse natural history, climate hazards, materialism, and magic. She holds a BFA from OCAD U and an MFA from York University, where she was not only the recipient of a graduate scholarship but also earned The Samuel Sarick Purchase Prize and SSHRC federal funding for her research on fire and climate change. Cristinzo’s writing and artwork about fire was recently included in Liz Toohey-Wiese and Amory Abbott compilation, Fire Season II.
While completing her Masters degree, a medical diagnosis prompted Cristinzo to conduct her work outside of institutions both academic and medical. Through a Canada Council for the Arts grant she spent 60 days at four artist residencies, including a residency at Vermont Studio Center, where she explored the tradition of “plein air” painting through the lens of climate change. In 2023, Cristinzo facilitated a thematic residency based on her experience called, “i made it through the wilderness” at Artscape Gibraltar Point. Furthermore, she recently completed a highly coveted residency at the Doris McCarthy Artist-in-Residence Program.
Her contributions to the artistic community extend beyond her own practice, as she has nurtured and supported countless artists and art spaces through out her tenure with Artscape. Cristinzo spent over a decade managing Artscape Gibraltar Point, an artist residency and event space on Mnisiing/Toronto Island and eventually lead an entire team of Hub Managers, as the Director of Hub Service for all community cultural hubs at Artscape. Currently, she is focused on teaching Painting and Drawing at Marilyn Walker School for Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University in St Catharines.
Looking ahead to 2024, she is set to participate in Local Bio Based Materials International Program, culminating in a group exhibition at the Denmark Design Festival in Copenhagen. Additionally, she will be embarking on the second iteration of her acclaimed "i made it through the wilderness" residency at Island Mountain Arts in Wells, BC this time facilitated by Liz Toohey-Wiese.
Artist Statement
The subject matter for my current body of work came to me while staying in a stone cabin. I started each morning by collecting kindling and lighting a fire in the wood stove, and soon came to see the pieces of wood, newspaper, burnable objects, and ash as triangular compositions suitable for painting. As a result, the fireplace became a still life within a frame. I began to postpone the fire each morning to sketch the arrangement prior to burning. Building a fire, became a means of building a painting. The basis of my research-creation project is the concept of materialism, as well as the lustrous objects I take into consideration when painting. I am using fire and its process as a metaphor, an illustration of environmental impact and a response to materialism. My practice first starts by going on long walks to gather materials for paintings. The shoreline of Toronto Island for example, has offered endless materials suitable for painting. I often take photos of items such as driftwood, rocks, abandoned fire pits, colourful eroded plastics, and unusual wildlife, and if appropriate haul them back to the studio. The various materials are then stacked to form composition models, as references for abstract paintings. These paintings imitate objects placed in a fireplace, like an assemblage, before it is set on fire.