ARTIST STATEMENT
My work drifts between nostalgia and speculation, shaped by the quirky cadence of my Italian American heritage. As the direct descendant of Italian immigrants, I carry their resilience and contradictions into my sculptures, where the weight of tradition is never far: the kitchen table, the church altar, the rhythms of domestic ritual. These objects appear again and again, sometimes reverent, sometimes irreverent, always tethered to memory.
I explore the lives of women pulled between old world expectations and modern aspirations, mapping where we have been, where we stand, and what futures we might imagine. My work interrogates our rights, the power structures that resist them, and the erasure of our voices from history. The role models offered to women often divide into extremes: The Madonna, sacred and selfless, and Sophia Loren, luminous and sensual. We are expected to embody both.
With humor I exaggerate the familiar until it becomes absurd, transforming suffocating domesticity into shrines of resilience and wit. The whimsy reshapes repetition into ritual and transforms burdens into spaces for imagination, resistance, and joy.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lisa Venditelli Karmel received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from Mills College. She’s exhibited at Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, Cafe, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Lux Art Institute, and David Zapf Gallery. Nationally- San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, the Holter Museum of Art, Haines Gallery, A.I.R. Gallery NY, and the Museo ItaloAmericano in San Francisco and Woman Made Gallery. She’s currently teaching at Southwestern College and Cuyamaca College in San Diego. I have received a handful of awards including the outstanding sculpture prize awarded by Lisa Dennison, Best in Show by Patricia Correia, and Second prize from Delores Mercado at Woman Made. My work was written about in magazines, like Art in America and The San Diego Union Tribune by Robert Pincus, and I have given talks on my work.
© Lisa Venditelli