Biography​:

 

Recently, Lisette Morel exhibited with the Neo-Latino artists, “ Place: The Locus of Memory/Lugar: El Locus de la Memoria” curated by Virginia Fabbri Butera, Ph.D, The Gallery Space, Rahway, NJ. In April she was invited to install site specific pieces for “I Kan Do Dat” curated by Danny Simmons and Noah Smalls for Rush Arts Philly and for Upper Darby Gallery, PA. Also in April, she created a new site specific installation for “Process and Practice” curated by Evonne Davis, Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ.  Morel was invited to participate in “The Chalkboard Chronicles” curated by Tom Judd, Artyard Center, Frenchtown, NJ 2019.  

Ms. Morel debut her first solo, “Places You Aren’t Supposed To Go: (Don’t Play Me) Do We Still Call It Abstract Art?” curated by performance artist, Ayana Evans, Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ 2018. Morel’s participation in talks and performances include:  2nd Sundays art talk, Newark Museum “Through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists” 2016, and “Raw Forms Forum” performance, Newark Museum curated by artist Dominique Duroseau.

While painting is her primary medium, performance art is part of her artistic practice. Fitting with this, Morel performed “Knots” a performative painting piece requiring her to tie knots into large loose canvas sheets transforming them into her marking tool on a site specific wall on opening night of her solo exhibition 2018.  At ABC No Rio 2015 with performance artist Ayana Evans, they performed “Run to Your Friend Until You Can’t Anymore”. This ongoing project is an endurance piece in which the two women run to and away from each other for over 2 hours on a public block while wearing identical outfits it was performed again at El Museo Del Barrio in 2016. 

Morel was awarded the First Sustainable Arts Fellow Residency, Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ 2016 and the Artist in Residence at Soho20 Chelsea Gallery, NY 2012. She also participated in the Aljira Emerge10 Program and El Museo del Barrio's Fifth Biennial: "The (S) Files."  Lisette Morel is a recipient of the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant, received her Master in Fine Arts at Tyler School of Art, Temple University and her Bachelor of Arts at Rutgers University.

She is a Dominican-American artist, mother, independent curator and educator raised in NYC/NJ Lisette Morel’s works are accumulated emotive and defiant pieces oscillating between what a painting could be; impulsive unapologetic gatherings and anthropomorphic existence. She welcomes the unknown countered with self-imposed limitations to bring order to control the chaos. Morel plunges deep, exerting herself, calling on her song, holding onto Faith with tools like mops, tires and her body; she encounters what’s possible when a woman of color breaks from tradition and constraints while diving into performance as an extension which exposes the vulnerabilities of the mortal self.