Lisa Nebenzahl lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As an interdisciplinary artist and photographer working with several media allows her to use a wide range of processes to explore several interests - photography, printmaking, case/box-making, working with paper, folding, collage and montage. At the core of this work is an interest in manipulating imagery — of shadows, clouds, water and plants, by folding her photographs into crystal like shapes, octahedrons, truncated tetrahedrons and square trapezohedron, among others. Her constructions are meant to be held in one’s hands and examined, much like a beautiful rock or an egg; fragile yet strong.
Lisa works with photomontage composites using a variety of techniques – from traditional hand-sewing to overprinting, constructed photographs – printed and folded three-dimensional forms, and historical processes including cyanotype, platinum and polymer gravure printing. Her work explores fragility, resilience, loss, persistence and the passage of time. Using shadow, light and manipulation of the natural world of plants, flowers, water and sky, seeking to affirm the beauty and melancholy of change and express the temporal nature of life. Embracing chance and surprise and weaving these elements into her practice to observe and respond to the natural world, exploring abstraction and play, with a nod to the mystery of the subject matter.
Lisa is the inaugural recipient of the 2020 McKnight Fellowship for Book Artists, a three-time recipient of the Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grant and the recipient of the 2023 Denis Roussel Award. Her work is held in the Getty Research Center, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston Hirsch Library, the Newberry Library, the Phoenix Public Library Rare Book Room, the University of Colorado Boulder Rare and Distinctive Collections, the University of Delaware Special Collections and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. Lisa has exhibited nationally and in Oaxaca, Mexico and she holds a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
2019 Interview with Rfotofolio
EXHIBITIONS + OTHER ACTIVITIES
2024
THE CHICO POEMS folio acquired by the Gorman Rare Art Books and Media Collection at the University of Minnesota.
Soho Photo Gallery, Alternative Processes Show 2024, Aline Smithson, juror
Alternative Processes, Category winner and Honorable Mention 23rd Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, (StillScape photogravure series)
Center for Fine Art Photography, Words & Pictures online exhibition, Juror Aline Smithson (The Chico Poems)
2023
Recipient of the 2023 Denis Roussel Award, Rfotofolio. Juror Christopher James.
New York Center for Photographic Art, “Water 2023” exhibition, “Cloud|Fall” Jurors Selection. Juror Crista Dix.
THE CHICO POEMS folio acquired by Newberry Library and the University of Delaware Special Collections.
The 2020 & 2021 McKnight Book Artist Fellows, group exhibition, Minnesota Center for Book Arts
Analog Forever Online Group Exhibition - "Art of Illusion”. Juror Lisa Toboz
Petronella Ytsma & friends, Groveland Gallery, Minneapolis
2022
THE CHICO POEMS, top portfolio selected by juror Crista Dix. Rfotofolio Selections for 2022.
Soho Photo Gallery International Alternative Processes Competition, NY. Third Place for Meshes, photogravure. Juror Ann Jastrab.
The Kala Artists’ Annual exhibition, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley CA.
Stand Out Prints 2022, A Juried Print Exhibition, Highpoint Center for Printmaking,Minneapolis. Juror William Villalongo.
THE CHICO POEMS folio acquired by the Phoenix Public Library Rare Book Room, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the University of Colorado Boulder Rare and Distinctive Collections.
Featured in LENSCRATCH: LUMINOUS VISIONS: LISA NEBENZAHL: CONSTRUCTED PHOTOGRAPHS
Analog Forever, “Fabricated Realities” online exhibition
New Impressions 2022 exhibition, Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum, Two Rivers WI.
McKnight Artist Residency/Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA
2021
Soho Photo Gallery 2021 Alternative Processes Competition. Second Place for “Meshes’ photogravure. Juror Paula Tognarelli
Rene’s Box # 1 (Lumens) acquired by the Getty Research Institute
Notes acquired by the Getty Research Institute
Many Waters: A Minnesota Biennial, Minnesota Museum of American Art
New York Center for Photographic Art, ABSTRACT 2020-21. Juror, Debra Klomp Ching.
‘The Artist Intervenes’ exhibition, curated by Adriene Hughes and Lenscratch
Women of 2021. Selected by curator Constance Rose for inclusion in SXSE Photo Gallery and magazine.
2020
Selected by Rfotofolio and Jennifer Schlesinger: one of 3 top portfolios for my dimensional photography work, “Rivus” and my photogravure portfolio stillScapes Interview with Rfotofolio
15th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, Alternative Processes honorable mention for three photogravure diptychs.
Recipient of the Inaugural McKnight Fellowship for Book Artists, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, McKnight Foundation
Recipient of the Minnesota State Arts Board 2020 Artist Initiative Grant
'“water”, A Smith Gallery, Johnson City TX, juried by Douglas Beasley. Director’s Honorable Mention for “Rivus’.
2019
New York Center for Photographic Art, PATTERNS AND SHADOWS. Juror, Paula Tognarelli. Honorable Mention for “What Shall I Do when Summer Troubles'“ platinum-palladium print. November, 2019
Ghosting Time: New Work by Mary Ludington and Lisa Nebenzahl, Swan Vision Gallery, Maidenrock WI. September 7 – October 26, 2019
Griffin Museum of Photography, 25th Juried Exhibition Slide Show and Instagram, July 9 – October 31, 2019
Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition, Print category, St Paul, MN
Two Birds, Group Exhibition, Swan Vision Gallery, Maidenrock WI. May 4 - June 22, 2019
STATES OF MATTER: New work by Lisa Nebenzahl + Keith Taylor, Marsden|Gustafson Gallery, St Paul, MN, March 9 to May 23, 2019
DIPTYCH, a national juried photography exhibition at A Smith Gallery in Johnson City Texas, January 18 to March 10, 2019. Honored to receive the ‘Director's Award’.
Residency, Pocoapoco, Oaxaca, Mexico
2018
“Abstraction Attraction”, a national juried photography exhibition at The Griffin Museum of Photography, Lafayette City Center Gallery in Boston, MA. November 29 to May 5, 2019
My work has been selected by Rfotofolio and Aline Smithson: one of 3 top portfolios for my dimensional photography work, “Lumens” and diptych “Home_Stay” Interview with Rfotofolio
‘GEO a study in line and shape’, a group exhibition, Gallery 360, Minneapolis, MN, August 25 to September 30, 2018
Work represented by SwanVision Gallery, Maidenrock WI
The Hand magazine, contributor. Issue 19
Recipient of the Minnesota State Arts Board, 2018 Artist Initiative Grant
Mary Virginia Swanson, Master Class, Tucson
2017
Group exhibition, Taking Care, Minneapolis Photo Center, Minneapolis, MN
'Humanature', group show, Art at 810 Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition, juried by Areca Roe, St Paul, MN
2016
MCAD Alumni Show, City Wide Artists Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Recipient of the Minnesota State Arts Board, 2016 Artist Initiative Grant
2014
Solo exhibition, Works on Paper: Montages + Overprints, Open Eye Theater, Minneapolis, MN
Folding paper since 1980, photo: Gus Gustafson
