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Lori Larusso

Lori Larusso earned her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art’s (MICA) graduate interdisciplinary program, the Mount Royal School of Art and a BFA from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP). For the past 20 years, she has consistently exhibited work in solo and group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. Lori has been awarded numerous residency fellowships, and is a recipient of the Kentucky Arts Council’s Al Smith Fellowship, a Great Meadows Professional Development Grant, as well numerous grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women. Lori is the 2019 Kentucky South Arts Fellow.
Lori’s work is represented by Skidmore Contemporary in Santa Monica, California and Mulberry & Lime in Lexington, KY. She currently lives and works in Louisville, KY.

The works in this exhibition explore contradiction, desire, and the shifting ways humans show care for one another through physical and virtual labor.  

​The painted panels carefully crafted by hand* allude to the skill and physical labor involved in domestic chores such as food preparation and cleaning, the (invisible) labor of caregiving, and the emotional or gendered labor prevalent in the workplace. The flatness of image speaks to the accessibility of idea and association, and the unattainable or fleeting nature of continued gratification.

Investigating the ways culture is shaped through our beliefs and actions, this work aims to communicate care and reverence for the everyday, inanimate objects and language that shape our existence. Furthermore, I hope to ask questions about the role of the hand-making artist in a socio-economically digital world: is it possible to communicate a tone of sincerity through the act of making by hand?​

• The process of observing a digital image, further altering the image digitally to adjust contrast and proportions, building and preparing surface to paint on, drawing from the image, applying tape to the surface, carefully cutting away the positive space with a blade, mixing paint for color and consistency and applying multiple layers of paint to the exposed area. After the paint dries, the tape is removed to reveal sharp, definite edges. Another layer of tape is applied over the entire surface to repeat the process. This is done for every single shape, color, value, transparent or opaque. Each image is unique, as the cutting is an extension of drawing and once the tape is removed, it cannot be reused, as it does not hold it’s intended shape.