Growing up with deaf parents, I was asked to “look” as a way to learn and experience the world. I continue to find inspiration from looking. It is basic, rich with opportunities for exploration and interpretation. I came to representation backwards: abstraction first, from my student days and then direct observation.
For many years I have been working with the suburban landscape, a subject that reflects my personal life. This subject provides open ended territory; moments when I can be specific and yet have the freedom to transcend a particular place and time. My aim is not to replicate the visual experience, but to communicate the feeling of visual excitement when I first see something of interest. I look for small, hidden, neglected places that tend to be part of a larger context; a more private portion of a public view like an alley between two houses or a backyard space with an open garage door. And in my search, I find there is an intimacy in these somewhat disregarded spaces that I want to capture.
I want my paintings to be worlds unto themselves, where you feel you are experiencing something for the first time even though it is familiar. I want them to unfold slowly so the viewer encounters all the relationships in multiple ways, providing endless readings. My paintings have always been complex, dense and filled with many points of view and spatial juxtapositions. Using compositional distortions and fragmented spaces I work from an objective world to a subjective experience. Manipulating and orchestrating different components to resolve and unify a painting and present my vision is a challenge that keeps me inspired and engaged.
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