Confections & Mementos, a group exhibition featuring four national female artists Lori Larusso, Tara Barr, Nicci Sevier-Vuyk, and Lydia Ricci. Inspired by personal histories, time, and the idea of beauty, Confections & Mementos highlights each artist's unconventional approach to still-life and observational art. The everyday object, physical labor, and imperfect memories are just a few of the subjects depicted in the show. How do we perceive and process beauty in today's culture? What does it mean to perform labor as a woman in today's world of contemporary art? How can we pay tribute to our pasts and experiences, both shared and personal?
Lori Larusso makes paintings and painting installations that explore issues of class
and gender and how both reflect and shape culture. She has exhibited her work widely in the US and abroad and it is included in numerous public and private collections. Lori has been awarded numerous residency fellowships including Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, McColl Center for Art + Innovation, Sam & Adele Golden Foundation, Art + History Museums Maitland, chaNorth, and MacDowell where she received a Milton and Sally Avery Fellowship. She is a recipient of the Kentucky Arts Council’s Al Smith Fellowship, multiple grants from the Great Meadows Foundation and the Kentucky Foundation for Women. Lori is the 2019 Kentucky South Arts Fellow and is the recipient of the 2020 Fischer Prize for Visual
Art. Lori Larusso earned an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and a BFA from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP). She currently
Pictured: Lori Larusso, Revenge of the Deserted Possibilities, Acrylic on 6 panels, 80 x 48”
lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky and is represented by Galleri Urbane in Dallas, TX.
“I create paintings and installations that explore the pageantry, etiquette and contradiction embedded in domesticity and food culture. Personal and shared histories, truths and myths all provide inspiration for these works that simultaneously confirm and falsify existing systems of belief. The images I create allude to events or actions that are about to, or might have, taken place. While the specifics of the circumstance are dependent on context; color, shape, scale, and texture act as pockets of information or innuendo.More broadly, I aim to communicate care and reverence for the everyday, inanimate objects that shape our existence. The cut-out painted panels carefully crafted by hand allude to the skill and physical labor involved in domestic chores such as food preparation and cleaning, and the (invisible) labor of caregiving. The flatness of the two-dimensional painted object speaks to the accessibility of idea and association, and the unattainable or fleeting nature of continued gratification.”