Biography
Francie Lyshak (b. 1948) is a New York–based painter whose work has evolved from psychologically charged figuration to contemplative abstraction. She studied art history at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, painting in Paris, and later earned a BFA from the Center for Creative Studies and Wayne State University in Detroit.
In the 1970s and ’80s, Lyshak was active in New York’s East Village art scene, creating symbolic figurative paintings that often featured dolls, toys, animals, and human forms. These works carried a strong feminist sensibility and explored themes of vulnerability, resilience, and survival. Her 1993 project *The Secret: Art and Healing from Childhood Sexual Abuse* marked a turning point, bringing private struggle into public dialogue.
Since the mid-1990s, Lyshak’s work has shifted toward abstraction. Her current paintings are largely monochromatic, low-relief surfaces that engage light, texture, and color in ways that evoke psychological presence and contemplative states.
Lyshak has exhibited extensively in New York and beyond, with solo shows at La MaMa La Galleria and Carter Burden Gallery, as well as museum exhibitions at the Butler Institute of American Art, the Phillips Museum at Franklin & Marshall, and New England College. Her paintings are included in both public and private collections, and she has received wide critical attention as well as awards–including the Faber Birren National Color Award and the Provincetown Arts Annual Prize.