Lisa Abaya is a multidisciplinary artist based in Portugal whose practice investigates the relationships between movement, light, and perception. Her background in classical ballet—thirteen years of training at the San Francisco Ballet School—forms the foundation of her sensitivity to gesture, spatial rhythm, and embodied response, qualities that continue to inform her works.

She earned her BFA through the dual program between the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in painting with a minor in printmaking. Driven by a curiosity for cross-disciplinary dialogue, Lisa’s work often intersects with video, sound, and installation. Her multicultural background—Mexican, Serbian, and Chinese—deeply shapes her visual language, grounding her abstractions in traditional symbols and motifs reimagined through a contemporary lens.

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Contribution to APPARATUS:

Janitor of the Sea Key Holder (2026)

This key ring holder is crafted through a petroleum-free sand-casting process (used here at Estudio Morto Vivo) using recycled aluminium sourced from discarded rims. Its soft, organic form recalls the sea cucumber—often described as the janitor of the sea. These quiet custodians continuously filter the ocean floor, consuming decaying matter and returning cleaner, nutrient-rich sand to their environment.

By echoing their cycles of renewal, this object invites reflection on regeneration as both an ecological and human practice. Through transforming industrial waste into a functional, tactile form, the piece reflects the ocean’s wisdom—nothing is truly discarded, only transformed. It gestures toward a future shaped by restorative design and the humble, persistent labor of nature’s own recyclers.