Francie Lyshak

Lyshak’s seminal inspirations were during childhood, viewing art exhibitions at the Detroit Institute of Arts and viewing modern art paintings in her art history class at University of Michigan. Inspired to become a painter, she traveled to Paris to study painting for a summer. Returning to the United States, she plunged into painting and got her BFA from the Center for Creative Studies and Wayne State University in Detroit. Together these seminal events and studies propelled her into a 50-year commitment to painting, from which she has never veered.

After college, Lyshak moved to New York City’s East Village in the 1970s. There she joined a creative community that included now renowned writers, musicians and artists such as David Wojnarowicz, Peter Hujar, Gary Indiana, John Lurie and Larry Mitchell. This was a wildly rebellious community that encouraged her in her off-beat style of painting that was antithetical to the prevailing trends of minimalism, Pop, and conceptual art. She used the canvas like a theater stage, filling it with scenes of people, animals, dolls, and toys. With figures and landscapes, she investigated the underbelly of life from a feminist perspective. Later she documented this community in a series ...

Pratt Institute, Art Therapy and Creativity Development, Masters of Professional Studies, NYC, 9-76 to 5-78
Wayne State University, Painting and Drawing, Bachelor’s of Fine Arts, Detroit, Michigan, 1-69 to 5-70
Center for Creative Studies, Fine Arts, Detroit, Michigan, 9-68 to 5-69
University of Michigan, Humanities, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 9-66 to 5-68

One and Two-Person Exhibitions:
-Gestures, Carter Burden Gallery, NYC, April, 2017
-Atmospheres, Carter Burden Gallery, NYC, May, 2015
-Place Imagined, La Mama La Galleria, NYC, April, 2004
-‘The Spirit of Water,’ La Mama La Galleria, NYC, October, 1998
-‘Dollhouse Theatre,’ La Mama La Galleria, NYC, April, l996
-‘The Secret,’ La Mama La Galleria, NYC, November, l993
-‘Twelve Fables,’ Private Exhibition, NYC, January, l990
-Bill Rice Studio, NYC, February, l988
-Claire Dunphy’s Studio, NYC, February, l985
-‘Rick Picks Francie,’ Bill Rice Studio, NYC, September, l984

Selected Group Exhibitions:
-Yard, SHFA, NYC, May, 2019; Paradise, SHFA, NYC, November, 2016
-Paint, Print, Paper, Carter Burden Gallery, NYC, August, 2016
-Carter Burden Gallery, 5th Anniversary Exhibition, NYC, December, 2015
-Carter Burden Gallery, On the Wall, NY, NY, May 2014
-Visual Aids, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., NY, NY, January 2013
-New Arts Program, International Invitational Salon, Kutztown, PA, Summer, 2012
-Oliver Art Center, Annual Juried Exhibition, September 2011, July and August, 2012
-DNA, “East Side” group exhibition with Wojnarowicz, Rice, Ess, Morrison and Lyshak, Provincetown, MA, June 2011
-Art for Charity: Creating Critical Lin...