Press

2007 Fujimoto-Johnson, Sharon. "Art: Interview with Lisie S. Orjuela." The Spectrum Blog, January 15, 2007.
http://spectrummagazine.typepad.com/the_spectrum_blog/2007/01/art_interview_w.html

2005 Hopkins, Randi. "Only connect 'Connecting Points' at Zeitgeist, …" Editor's Pick, The Boston Phoenix, October 21-27, 2005.
http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/events/galleries/documents/05038253.asp

2005 Absolutearts.com. Indepth Arts News, October 24, 2005.
http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2005/10/24/33402.html

2005 Lisie S. Orjuela Connecting Points at Zeitgeist Gallery Press Release
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/10/emw300983.htm
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/10/inktomi300983.php

'REENCOUNTERS' WORTH ENCOUNTERING
A Review by John Brandenburg
The Daily Oklahoman, January 14, 1999

Glowing colors supply an interesting counterpoint to the downbeat feel of the content in an exhibit of oil paintings called "Reencounters."

The exhibit, by Ardmore artist Lisie S. Ojuela, is on display at Individual Artists of Oklahoma Gallery, One North Hudson.

Particularly noteworthy is Orjuela's ability to enrich the flesh of her nude, shaven-headed figures of feminine or indeterminate gender with a veritable rainbow of blue, green, red and orange undertones, which bring to mind some of the paintings of French artist Pierre Bonard.

Subject matter is evocative, but more problematic, and intentionally doesn't refer to "any particular place," as Orjuela puts out in her artist's statement.

A green figure lowers a bluish figure - one whose arm and leg seem to be bleeding - onto a couch or ottoman in "Lament I (Loss of Memory and The Three Messengers)."

Three yellow-green birds - presumably the "messengers" of the title - fly up from what appears to be a blue world in the background toward the dying protagonist in the foreground of "Lament I," perhaps Orjuela's most haunting and universal work in the show.

Repetitive, decorative elements reminiscent of Austrian artist Gustav KIimt are found in Orjuela's "Lament II" - a second version of the theme of a figure lying on her deathbed, this time watched over by two attendants rather than one.

Two figures reach out to greet or embrace each other while a third figure touches or leans on the shoulder of one of them in two paintings from her "Visitation" series, which she described as an "exploration of trust and friendship."

Complementing Orjuela's six large, rich-hued paintings on canvas are 12 small 11-by-11-inch, mostly black-and-white oil paintings on paper in which a single figure gestures with open arms - as if in prayer or supplication.

Orjuela said the 18 paintings in the show "are based on and spring from images and themes that have been around for a long time in European art from the Renaissance and early Christian times."

"As I work with these themes, I reinterpret them from my contemporary perspective. I re-encounter them from our secular culture," she explained.