I work between the boundaries of representation and abstraction. Everywhere we look there is more than meets the eye - more than we can grasp. My paintings are a series of moments when taken together become a composite of time.
Based on looking and memory, the environments in my paintings are constructed and modified into characters that capture more than one experience simultaneously. The atmosphere, architecture, plant life and sometimes people, all project their essence of possibility. They contain the forgotten past, the unnoticed present and the promise of change. By expanding upon the observational, the paintings are infused with a sense of discovery.
Inspired by the interaction of residential architecture with nature, I draw on site to make these observations stay put in paintings when they are ephemeral in life. The narrow spaces in-between domestic residencies provide varied displays of shape and color that change from time of day and season to season. In my studio I combine the drawing with changes of color, light and perspective altering the known with the imagined. New forms develop that lead to that moment when there is a tension between the hard silhouette of a garage and the graceful lines of a tree. My studio challenge is to orchestrate all the components so they hold that tension. By working between boundaries of representation and abstraction, meaning is created by my choices to balance all the elements. In return, the paintings transform my daily world into one suspended in mystery and surprise.
Celia Reisman lives and works in Merion, Pennsylvania and Strafford, Vermont. She is
represented in Philadelphia by Gross McCleaf Gallery and Paul Thiebaud Gallery in San
Francisco. She received a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and an MFA from Yale
University. She has exhibited her work in solo exhibitions and group shows through out the
United States. The American Academy of Arts and Letters Invitational Exhibition awarded
her a Purchase Prize and she was given a Survey Exhibition at the Michener Museum in
Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She has been a Visiting Critic at programs in the US, Italy and
Ireland and taught at numerous Art Departments in the Northeast.
Celia Reisman
Lives in Merion, PA and Strafford, VT
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Chosen Places, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2022 Side Streets, Back Roads, Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2020 Borderlands, Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadlephia PA
2019 Vermont Paintings, Big Town Gallery, Rochester, VT
2018 Five Places, HACC Gallery, Lancaster, PA
2017 A Moment Noticed, Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2015 Recent Paintings, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2013 A Certain Slant, Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2011 Paintings, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, New York, NY
2010 Paintings, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2006 Paintings, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA
2004 Paintings, Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadlphia, PA
2001 Paintings, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, NY
2000 Secret World, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA
1995 Paintings,Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1992 Paintings, Cleaver Callahan Gallery, New York, NY
1990 Paintings, List Gallery, Swarthmore, PA
1988 Paintings, Hood Museum, Hanover, NH
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 WORRY: Our Anxious Age, Soft Machine Gallery, Allentown PA Curated by Elizabeth
Johnson
2022 Holiday Exhibition, Morpeth Contemporary, Hopewell,NJ
2019 Social Networks, Thomas Deans Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
2018 Flowers, Morpeth Contemporary, Hopewell, NJ
2016 Philadelphia Painters, Kutztown University Gallery, Kutztown, PA
2015 Women’s Work, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA
2012 Creative Hand, Discerning Heart, Michener Museum, Doylestown, PA
All About Etching, Neptune Fine Art, Washington, D.C.
Farm Exhibit, Art at King Oaks, Newtown, PA
2012 Pennsylvania Landscapes, Lancaster Museum, Lancaster PA
Piece by Piece, Art Bank US State Department, Washington, D.C.
2010 C.R. Ettinger Press, PAFA, Philadelphia, PA
2009 Invitational, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
A Dog’s Life, Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN
Susan Lichtman & Celia Reisman, Lenore Gallery, Providence, RI
Color Key, Painting Center, New York NY
2008 Art of the State, State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA
2007 Landscape, Painting Center, New York, NY
2002 Two American Painters, FIVE Princelet Street Gallery, London, UK
Small Things, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, NY
1998 In Her Own Voice, Berman Art Museum, Collegeville, PA
Landscape Observed, Central Connecticut State College, New Britain, CT
Small Painting Invitational, Blue Mountain Gallery, New York, NY
1966 Rediscovering the Landscape of the Americas, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe NM
Traveling Exhibition with Catalog
Spirit of Nature, MB Modern, New York, NY
1994 The Artist as Native: Reinventing Regionalism, Babcock Gallery, New York, NY
Traveling Exhibition with Catalog
1991 Watercolor, Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago, IL
1990 Art in the Garden, Kornbluth Gallery, Fairlawn, NJ
1988 Philadelphia Drawing, Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA
1986 Contemporary Philadelphia Painting, Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA – Catalog
Town and Country, Noel Butcher Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1985 Chicago International, Kathryn Markel Fine Art, New York, NY
Divine Vistas, Noel Butcher Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS
2023 Visiting Artists with Hazel Walker, Burren College of Art, Ballyvaughan Ireland
2020 Visiting Artist, Mt Gretna School of Art, Mt Gretna, PA
2019 Art New England, Mass College of Art, Bennington, VT
2013 Visiting Artist, Mt. Gretna School of Art, PA
2012 -2013 International School of Painting, Drawing & Sculpture, Montecastello, Italy
2010-2013 Visiting Critic, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2010 Visiting Professor, Department of Art, Haverford College, Haverford, PA
1990-2008 Assistant Professor, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
2007 Visiting Artist, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA
Visiting Artist, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH
Visiting Artist, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
1985-2002 Visiting Assistant Professor, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
2001 Visiting Artist, Trinity College, Hartford, CT
SELECTED AWARDS
2015 Borgo Finnochietto Residency, Buonconvento, Italy
2009 Hassam, Peicher, Betts, & Symons Fund Purchase, American Academy of Arts & Letters
Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Residency
2004 Rochfort-en-Terre Painting Residency, Brittany, France
2001 Leeway Foundation - Window of Opportunity Award
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts - SOS Grant
1999 Ragdale Foundation, Residency
Open Studio Press, Mid Atlantic Artists Catalog
1996 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Residency
EDUCATION
1971 Carnegie Mellon University BFA
1978 Yale University MFA in Printmaking
GALLERY REPRESENTATION
Paul Thiebuad Gallery, San Francisco, CA paulthiebaudgallery.com
Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA grossmccleaf.com
Morpeth Contemporary, Hopewell, NJ morpethcontemporary.com
INTERVIEWS
Art2Life - Interview with Susan Melrath
https://app.searchie.io/watch/
Painting Perceptions paintingperceptions.com 2011, 2015, 2020
Savvy Painter savvypainter.com
Powers of Observation powersofobservation.com
Michener Museum
Video by John Thornton for The Secret World of Celia Reisman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YWHt4kGpPk
Michener Museum
Video by John Thornton for Creative Hand Exhibtion https://youtu.be/7YWHt4kGpPk
Painters on Painting paintersonpainitng.com/elizabeth-johnson-on-celia-reisman
Painting Perceptions paintingperceptions.com/borderlands-by-celia-reisman/
Celia Reisman, Painting the Beauty All Around Us -John Thornton Video 2022
Art Sync: A Way, A Direction - Conversation with Celia Reisman September 2022
with Elizabeth Johnson - @grossmccleaf.com Gallery -Viewing Room