Lisa Birke is a Vancouver artist working primarily in painting, installation and performance art. Since graduating from Emily Carr Institute (BFA 1999), Lisa has had public and commercial solo exhibitions in Canada, the US, and the Netherlands. Using black humour as a backdrop, her work is an eclectic mix of mass media, pop culture and kitsch imagery. It references art history and makes observations about consumerism, human impact on the environment, biological manipulation, social stereotyping, and how technology is changing identity and meaning in the contemporary world. Lisa has been an arts educator for ten years and has given numerous lectures on her work, travels and creative process.

"My work explores the world as seen through a mass media looking glass. I attempt to make sense of contemporary issues and technologies by rearranging and reflecting our kitsch and cultural signifiers back at us in satirical and oddly arranged conglomerations. My paintings merge traditional techniques and subjects with cartoon and abstract imagery in painted trompe l'oeil collage tableaus. I am interested in how humanity has evolved and where we are headed, tackling big issues in seemingly trite manifestations but affecting contemplation through subconscious and psychological undertones; like image-conscious advertisement gone horribly awry."