Calista Lyon is an artist and teacher based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Tallangatta Valley, Australia. Through a research-informed practice centered on the image, she creates lecture performances, installations, and educational programs that aim to deepen ecological consciousness and disrupt colonial-capitalist imaginaries.
Her work has been exhibited at institutions including The Momentary, Bentonville, AR; Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA; Light Work, Syracuse, NY; Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA; La Trobe Art Institute, Australia; The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH; and the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, UT.
Lyon's work has been supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, the National Association for the Visual Arts (AU), the Regional Arts Fund (AU), and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York. She has completed residencies and fellowships at Oak Spring Garden Foundation, University of Arkansas, University of Denver, Epicenter, University of Virginia, Ohio State University, and the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA.
Lyon has held teaching positions at the University of Denver, Kenyon College, and the University of Virginia. She currently serves as Area Head of Photography and Assistant Professor of Photography & Expanded Media at the University of Arkansas.
I contribute 1% of my annual salary to the Pay the Rent Grassroots Collective in Australia as a way to acknowledge Indigenous sovereignty and ongoing dispossession. In the U.S., this practice is also known as a voluntary land tax. I share this commitment to encourage you to consider what paying the rent might look like for you.