LISA CRISTINZO (she/her/beast), Is a queer painter, arts worker, teacher, and emerging mystic, a first-generation Canadian with Northern Irish and Southern Italian roots, residing in Tkarón:to on the Treaty Lands of the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas, and Haudenosaunee and Dish with One Spoon Wampum. She re-emerged as an artist after working in arts administration and programming for over 15 years, including managing the artist residency program at Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts on Mnisiing/Toronto Island. Cristinzo’s work explores myth, materialism, and earth-based spiritual practices that result in subversive paintings and spaces, fueled by the desire to queer the monolithic, entangle hierarchies, and diversify systems of care. Drawing from the pre-Roman myth of Romulus and Remus - human twins abandoned in the Tiber River and nursed by the she-wolf “Lupa” - research explores diversified care systems, as a supportive and vital response to our current climate epoch. When the Earth can no longer be our wet nurse, how does the Earth get nursed? And how can non-biological, non-gendered mothering offer solutions for healing ourselves, the planet, and each other?
In 2022, she completed an MFA at York University, receiving a Graduate Scholarship and SSHRC funding for her research into fire and climate change, along with the Samuel Sarick Purchase Prize. Funded by a Canada Council for the Arts grant, Lisa spent 60 days at four artist residencies following her MFA, where she explored the tradition of “plein air” painting through the lens of climate change. Cristinzo created a thematic artist residency based on this experience and brought together Indigenous, settler, and newcomer land-based artists for a collective contemplation around “plein air” painting and climate disasters. The residency, called “i made it through the wilderness,” is in its third iteration and is now an artist collective. Currently, Cristinzo’s work focuses on ecological cycles, post-burnout restorative practices, and working in co-authorship, creating work “about” and “with” plants. After completing the Doris McCarthy Artist-in-Residence Program in 2023, she participated in a local bio-based materials international program, “The Material Way,” based in Denmark, where she made apple-based bioplastics from Doris McCarthy’s apple trees. Most recently, her work was included in a three-person show, "Red, Yellow, Blue," at Xpace Cultural Centre, curated by the Gas Collective. She is currently a sessional instructor, teaching painting and drawing at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts at Brock University, and serves on the Board at the RiverBrink Art Museum in the Niagara region.
VISUAL ARTIST STATEMENT , 2025