Lidija Ristić is a Serbian-American interdisciplinary artist based in Europe. The essence of her practice is the making of hybrids and amalgamations. This manifests through the combined use of found objects, readily available materials and the seamless blending of digital processes, traditional crafts and a wide range of fine art techniques. The results of this approach come in the form of sculpture, digital collage, installation, video work, audience lead participation and performance.
Ristić received her BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston in sculpture with a minor in painting and an MFA in Studio Art from New York University. She was one of the founders of the collective art workspace, 24k Studios, the mobile gallery, 24k Studios Presents, and was the creative director for the charity food pop-up, Hungry Babes, in San Francisco, where she was based until 2018. In addition, she has worked in museum preparations, as a lighting technician and as an undergraduate college instructor. All of these influences are present in her practice. She has been invited to be an artist in residence at institutions like, Pilotenkueche International Art Program in Germany and she is a member of the artist-run, independent project space, Paradice Palase, in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in cities across the world, including in New York, San Francisco, Boston, Berlin, Leipzig, Milan and Belgrade. Ristić has appeared in televised and print interviews on multiple national Serbian news outlets as well as in many international digital and print art publications including Artforum.
In her work she strives to create complexity. This is achieved through a layering that takes place on a multitude of levels. In the physical and immediate sense, it is seen by how she combines materials, both fabricated and found, in intricate ways that both celebrate their material nature and abstract them into new contexts through proximity to often disparate elements. A reoccurring example of this in Risitć’s work is the combining of the “real” and the “fake”, like mixing acrylic fur with patent leather, bones with glitter and the photograph next to its original content. Media is therefore also used as a layer. The pieces she fabricates become the subjects of still life photography, video and audio works. Through this process she is able to import demonstrably material and palpable objects into a digital sphere. By doing so a dialog is created between the virtual realm and the concrete. It also develops a creative system that generates new creations that further layer upon each other in continuum.
CV
Education
2021 MFA Studio Art, New York University, Steinhardt College, New York
2010 BFA in Sculpture, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston
Exhibitions
Solo:
2022 TOP COAT, Cultural Center Dorćol, Belgrade, Serbia
2019 Behind Her Uncontaminated Front, 80WSE, New York, NY
2018 Faux Fawning, Installation for Jenny Lemons, San Francisco, CA
2017 Secret Garden, Installation at 24k Studios, San Francisco, CA
2017 Icons and Idolatry, Vacation SF, San Francisco, CA
2017 How My Garden Grows, SOMA Arts Center, San Francisco, CA
2015 Icons and Idolatry, ATA Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2015 Window display for 24k Studios, San Francisco, CA
Group Shows:
2022 ReA! International Art Fair, Milan, IT
2022 Large Format Identities, Arte Gallery, Belgrade, RS
2022 Distant/Memory, Visionary Projects, NYC/Berlin
2022 Echoes of the Ancient, 56 Bogart/The Border Project, Brooklyn, NY
2022 RAZMAŠTANI DIG(ID)ENTITETI, NO CONCEPT Gallery, Belgrade, Serbia
2022 MÄRCHENBRUNNEN, Haus der Statistik, Berlin, Germany
2021 Sublime G.O., Pilotenkueche, Leipzig, Germany
2021 A.D.S., Altehandelsschule, Leipzig, Germany
2021 Blau Verschiebung Performance Festival, Gallery Kub, Leipzig, Germany
2021 Youth Biennale, Pavillon des Arts Cvijeta Zuzorić, Belgrade, Serbia
2021 the Secret Language of Objects, Urban Studio Unbound, Yonkers, NY
2021 is this a bad time?, 80WSE Gallery, New York, NY
2020 Mess/MESS, Paradice Palase, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Tulpamancy, 80WSE Gallery, New York, NY
2017 Holiday Bazaaaar, 2498 Harrison Street Studios, San Francisco, CA
2017 Secret Garden, 24k Studios, San Francisco, CA
2016 Breach the Surface and Sink, West Coast Craft Show, San Francisco, CA
2016 Women Are Perfect, Galeria de la Raza, San Francisco, CA
2015 Sexism: A Touchy Subject, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2015 Parking Lot Art Fair, For Mason Public Parking Lot, San Francisco, CA
2014 Beasties, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA
2011 Plus Minus, Brant Gallery, Boston, MA
2010 Carry-Out Show, MEME Gallery, Cambridge, MA
2010 12 Inches, Duran Gallery, Boston, MA
2010 Out of the Woods, Godine Gallery Boston, MA
Curatorial Projects
2020 Mess/MESS, in partnership with Paradice Palase, Brooklyn, NY
2016 Breach the Surface and Sink, traveling show in partnership with:
Parking Lot Art Fair, Urban Air Market, West Coast Craft Fair & The 20th Street Block Party, San Francisco, CA
2016 Not as Simple as It Seems, 24k Studios Presents for Of the Grid, Berkeley, CA
2012 Unstuck in Time: Paintings by Kristen Texiera, 24k Studios, San Francisco CA
2012 Heritage: flm work by Cate Giordano, 24k Studios, San Francisco CA
2013 Hand Jobs: Collaborations of Nail Artists and Jewelers, 24k Studios, SF CA
2010 12 Inches at Duran Gallery, Boston MA
Selected Publications/Features
2022 Echoes of the Ancient, Artforum, digital, international
2022 Telegraf Serbia, print interview, RS
2022 Studio B, Belgrade, Good Morning, live television interview, RS
2022 RTS, Kultniri Dnevnik, television interview, RS
2022 Noizz, “When everyday objects become art” digital, RS
2022 Arte, exhibtion announcement, digital, RS
2022 Serbija Today, exhibtion announcement, digital, RS
2022 Looker Weekly, intervju, digitalno, RS
2021 Les Nouveaux Riches, artist interview, International/ Vienna, AT-based, digital
2021 Divided Magazine, Issue 4, International, print & digital
2021 Art Jobs, Artist of the Month, International, digital
2021 Art + Type Magazine, Issue 1, International/New York, NY-based, print
2017 Dwell Collective Zine feature, Issue 1 “A Woman’s Space”, Plymouth, UK
2017 Average Art Magazine feature, June Issue, UK
2017 Average Art Magazine feature, May Issue, UK
2017 SOMARTS blog feature, How My Garden Grows, San Francisco, CA
2013 Nails Magazine, April Issue, Torrance, CA
2013 SF Weekly, “Hand Jobs” Nail Art Show Nails It, San Francisco, CA
Work Experience
2020 Professor/Instructor, Sculpture I for Non-Majors, NYU Steinhardt College, NY
2016 Creative Director Hungry Babes SF, San Francisco, CA
2012-18 Co-Founder 24k Studios, San Francisco, CA
Awards/Grants/Residencies
2023 Karen Finley Scholarship for Women and Non-Binary Writers
2022 Luxembourg Art Prize Certificate of Artistic Merit
2021 Luxembourg Art Prize Certificate of Artistic Merit
2021 Artist in Residence, 3 months, Pilotenkueche International Art Program, Leipzig, DE
2015 Ne Timeas Art Grant Recipient
2010 Crosby Award Honorable Mention