Lindvay, Lisa

American, b. 1983

BiographyLisa Lindvay’s ongoing series offers a highly personal look into the daily lives of her family members as they grapple with the effects of her mother’s mental illness. Though we never actually see Lindvay’s mother, her influence is felt by her family and the spaces they inhabit. Photographed over five years, the disheveled appearances of her father, sister, and two brothers is mirrored in the unkempt and chaotic appearance of their home. These scenes–including a bathroom sink that serves as an ashtray for a growing pile of cigarettes (Bathroom Sink, 2012); empty 2-liter soda bottles bursting out from underneath a bare bed bunk frame (Nick in His Old Room, 2007); and her father and two brothers looking despairingly at their fast-food meal of fries and hamburgers (Dinner, 2009)–show a literal deterioration of their home life and also serve as a metaphor for her mother’s declining health.
Lisa Lindvay completed a MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago (2009) and a BFA from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania (2005). She has been included in exhibitions at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago (2011, 2010); National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (2009); and in the traveling exhibition, The Kids are All Right (2012-13). In 2012, Lindvay participated in a residency at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.