Everything that is happening in my life is an inspiration for my work, including personal experience, popular culture, and current events. I am interested in the way technology and the constant flow of information shape our perception of time and reality. While I have worked across various mediums, including sculpture and installation, I am currently creating colorful paintings that blend collage-style imagery with abstraction. In these works, scale is often skewed, space is fragmented, and the surface is layered with patterns and images. Although suggestive, the paintings are open-ended, consisting of fragmented vignettes and narratives that reflect the way we consume data. I try to examine the complexities of personal experience and relationships and how they intersect with broader social and cultural forces.
At its core, my work tells stories and asks questions. Although my inspiration may be triggered by a current event, it expands as I paint. In our chaotic and information-saturated world, we see life through fragments—a news story about a flood, a bird landing on a windowsill, a house for sale on Instagram, or a coffee cup on the counter. Through these disjointed images and iconography, I want to create spaces where viewers can pause, reflect, and connect with the intimate moments that shape our experience. I aim to obscure any clear storyline, prompting viewers to form their own interpretations. I’m drawn to the emotional weight of everyday objects and experiences and how they anchor us in a fragmented world. I strive to capture the tension between the mundane and the profound, inviting personal reflection.
Although she has worked in a variety of media including sculpture, video and installation art, Lisa Baird is currently making colorful mixed media works on paper. Her work draws not only from life but from the imagination in a process that is playful and unconscious. Her paintings contain narrative elements and a domestic, familial intimacy. Often, scale is skewed, gravity is defied, and the picture plane is covered with images, pattern, and color. What she is seeking is not realism or abstraction but the unconscious and intuitive mystery of being human.
Lisa Baird works and lives outside of Philadelphia, PA. She received a BA in Art History and Painting from Bowdoin College, a BFA in Painting from The San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from The Maryland Institute, College of Art. She has taught at the University of the Arts, Drexel University, The Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, and The Delaware College of Art and Design. She has won awards both for her teaching and for her art including a Leeway Award for Sculpture and the MBNA award for best practices in Education. Her work is in private collections in the United States, Europe, and Australia.
1997
MFA The Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
1980
BFA Fine Arts The San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1978
BA Art History Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
1976-1977
Study Abroad University College, Oxford University, England
2000—2016
The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Senior Lecturer in Three -Dimensional Design and Sculpture
2009-2014
Drexel University Philadelphia, PA
Professor Three-Dimensional Design
2007-2013
The Pennsylvania College of Art and Design
Professor; Foundation Studies
1998-2018
The Delaware College of Art and Design
Professor; Foundation Studies
2020
Oxford Art Alliance Jury Prize
2000
MBNA Award for Excellence in Education Hope House
1999
Leeway Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sculpture
1998
Hercules Grant for Community Service Mural Arts
1998
Vermont Studio Center Residency
1997
Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts Members Award
Main Line Tonight Kindred December 2023
Chester County Press 10/22/2018 New Artists and Styles at the Oxford Arts Alliance
The City Paper, Artists on the Fringe, 2001
The Wilmington News Journal, Woman wins Grant 1999
Art in America, Leeway Grants for Crafts and Sculpture, 1999
Philadelphia Inquirer, Artists, Works in Progress, 1999
American Craft Magazine, Women in Philadelphia, 1999
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Eleven Women in Sculpture, 1998
The Wilmington News Journal, Hope House Sculpture Garden, 1998
The Art Trust, West Chester, PA
The Center for Emerging Visual Artists
Khawam Gallery, East Hanover, NJ
The College Art Association
2007-2009
Longwood Gardens, Chadds Ford, PA
In collaboration with Delaware Center for Horticulture: raised $50,000 to implement urban garden in Wilmington, DE
2005-2005
Helen Graham Cancer Center
Worked with cancer patients on a collaborative art installation
1999
Delaware College of Art and Design Summer Program for Young Urban Artists
Wilmington Renaissance Corporation
In collaboration with Delaware College with Art and Design: consultant and maintained public sculpture project
1998
Hope House Collaborative Installation and Sculpture Garden in Collaboration with Hope House INC. Wilmington, DE
Raised $30,000 to implement sculpture garden and playground for Women in Transition
2022
Galley 444 Provincetown, MA
For Colors Sake
2017
Delaware College of Art and Design, Wilmington, DE
Message for the Mess Age
2016
The Pennsylvania College of Art Lancaster, PA
Message for the Mess Age
2013
The Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts Wilmington, DE
Journey into Past Addresses
2012
The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Message for the Mess Age
2003
Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD
Message for the Mess Age Installation
2000
The Maryland Institute College of Art Baltimore, MD
The Wedding
1999
The Philadelphia Art Alliance Philadelphia, PA
The Family Channel
2025
Khawam Gallery, East Hanover, NJ
Vibrant Spirituality
2024
The Arsenal Galley, New Castle, DE
Artists at the Arsenal
Annie Gould Gallery, Charlottesville, VA
Fashion as Art
The Art Trust, West Chester, PA
Structures
Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Converge
Group Show, The Hook Experiment, Oxford, PA
Co-Curator
2023
Group Show, The Hook Experiment, Oxford, PA
Co-Curator
Gallery 440 Brooklyn, NY
Small Works
2022
The Blue Streak Gallery Wilmington, DE
Cherish
2021
The Gallery Project, Brooklyn, NY
The Blue Streak Gallery, Wilmington, DE
Small Works Group Show
2020
Gloucester Arts Invitational Gloucester, MA
Beyond Paper
2019
Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Postcards
2018
The Oxford Art Alliance Oxford, PA
Juried Show and Prize
The University of the Arts Leeway Artists Artist Books
2017
Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Making Space
2017
Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Lancaster, PA
2016
Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE
2015
Art Harvest; Chadds Ford, PA
Pop up Art Show and Sale
2013
Delaware College of Art and Design, Wilmington, DE
Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Lancaster, PA
Delaware College of Art and Design Wilmington, DE
Exhibition
Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Lancaster, PA
2012
Oxford Art Alliance, Oxford, PA
The White Show
Maryland Institute College of Art Baltimore, MD
Small Works
Philadelphia Art Alliance - Philadelphia, PA
Small Works
2011
Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Lancaster, PA
2010
Elemental/Ornamental, Levy Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2024
The Hook Experiment, Oxford, PA Group show co-curator
2023
The Hook Experiment, Oxford, PA Group Show co-curator
