top of page
lisa cooperman

I am a studio artist, museum educator, and curator who's goal is to make art matter to more people. My studio practice is rooted in material and craft and engagement in the gallery grounded in the belief that the entire scope of art, from humor to profundity is available to everyone. 

 

The mostly wall-hung textile sculpture of my studio practice presents a sequence of narrative bursts that combine the influence of place, a love of materiality, and craftsmanship. I work with found and recycled material, selected for its formal appeal and the meanings associated with former use. The garment-scaled pieces suggest ways an individual might interact with stories that otherwise feel too big to swallow and relates them directly to the individual body as a site of need, tribulation, vanity, and pleasure. 

 

In many ways this work is about the instability of constructed narratives and the traumas they often produce, but it also centralizes the pleasure present in the act of making. My aim is to land in the place between stuff and story, to find a sweet mystery spot and stitch it to pieces.

selected recent exhibitions

2018        Urban Hive, Sacramento: Manic Episode 6, invitational

                Pence Gallery, Davis: Slice, juried group

                happylucky no. 1, New York: Haptics, invitational

                D'Art Center, Norfolk: Material, juried group

2017        A.I.R. Gallery, New York: Baize, solo sculpture exhibition 

                A.I.R. Gallery, New York: Wish You Were Here, postcard show

2016        Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson: Flesh Anew, juried group 

                On the Ground Floor, Los Angeles: The Feminist Sex Shoppe,     

                juried group 

2015        Philadelphia Women's Caucus for Art: Old Enough to Know Better

                 juried group 
 

selected recent curatorial projects

2018        University of the Pacific, Reynolds Gallery                 

                   Golden Eye: Art from the Robert & Jeannette Powell Collection

                University of the Pacific, Reynolds Gallery                  

                   The Revolution Will Be DIY

2017         University of the Pacific, Sacramento campus
                   Larry Walker: Probe

                 University of the Pacific, Department of Art & Graphic Design

                   Pacific Prints: Selections from the permanent collection

2015-17    Haggin Museum: Provided conceptual, historic, and aesthetic                                     framework for core collection reinstallation

2011-16    DeltaFusion: Conceptualized, researched, wrote, recruited, organized,                     designed, taught, and performed collaborative summer workshop                         and giant mask and puppet pageant with over 75 diverse community                      participants in Stockton, California.
2015         Haggin Museum: Co-curated exhibition Picasso, Miró & Hawaii
                    Five-0: Prints from the Jack Lord Collection

2014         Haggin Museum: Co-curated exhibition Fortunes & Family

experience

2017 - Present             University Curator

University of the Pacific, Stockton, California

2006 - 2017                  Curator of Education 
The Haggin Museum, Stockton, California

 

2006                              Museum Educator
The Haggin Museum, 
Stockton, California

 

2010 - 2016                   Visiting Assistant Professor

2000 - 2009                   Visiting Lecturer
Department of Visual Art

University of the Pacific, Stockton, California 

education

MFA, Sculpture & Metalsmithing, Montana State University

BA, magna cum laude, English Literature, Bowdoin College

bottom of page