Galleri Urbane is pleased to introduce Louisville-based artist Lori Larusso in her inaugural solo exhibition with the gallery. Care features new paintings that pay homage to the imagery and language spawned by her interactions with others in physical and virtual settings, especially as they relate to giving or having received care. For Larusso, these efforts, from the labor of preparing food to acts of indulgence shared on social media, reveal the underlying sociological complexities of issues like gender, class, domestic roles, and consumption.
Watch:
View a video tour of the exhibition
Across her nearly two-decade career, Larusso has painted food-related imagery while driven by an interest in the politics and psychology surrounding why we eat what we eat and how we feel about it.
Care features dozens of painted panels from her ongoing series I Like Your Pictures and I Like You, depicting exquisitely rendered food and beverage items alongside a myriad of accompanying texts, functioning as early 21st century still life paintings. Installed in a colorful grid across one corner of the gallery, the amassed panels surround viewers with images of tempting cocktails and desserts and excerpts that read everything from “Can’t stop, won’t stop” to “We’re now offering To-Go food again!” Seemingly disjointed, the installation taken as a whole suggests a pandemic-era social life carried out online while the text works fall somewhere between heartfelt expression and the ubiquitous language of contemporary advertising. “I am interested in how we individually or collectively celebrate or condemn food items, based on our social position,” writes Larusso, “ and how these attitudes are both contradictory and constantly in flux.”
Acrylic and enamel on panel
12 x 12 x 1.50 in.
Acrylic and enamel on panel
12 x 12 x 1.50 in.
“These paintings bolster the detritus of daily existence, paying homage to the inanimate objects, as well as the crumbs, scraps, and regurgitated morsels generated from engaging with others in physical and virtual worlds. I am particularly interested in the residue that serves as proof of having given or received care.
While this visual evidence of care—staged or impromptu—often presents as disjointed or incoherent, it collectively forms the backdrop of my relationships with friends, acquaintances, and strangers. This work functions as a love letter to the current moment—this imperfect, tragic, and sometimes beautiful experience of being alive in the early 2020s.”
Acrylic and enamel on panel
12 x 12 x 1.50 in.
Acrylic and enamel on panel
12 x 12 x 1.50 in.
In contrast to the polished, instagram-worthy imagery found in the grid of paintings, the exhibition also includes Larusso’s Kitchen Sink Still Life series. A conglomerate of shaped polymetal substrates, the paintings nod to the labor performed in domestic settings. Used dishes, utensils, cutting boards, and food scraps pile up in these tableaus, serving as evidence of the work put into food preparation. Larusso likens this work to her intricate, time-intensive painting process: “Just as is often the case with both food preparation and caregiving, the labor is thoughtful, not performed and usually invisible, with others only seeing the results.” Beyond notions of labor, the series also introduces discourse around food, gender and class. Who gets to cook and what food do they have access too? Who is responsible for cleaning up?
Exhibition Install Images:
Watch:
Lori Larusso provides insight into the work featured in Care
Acrylic and enamel on panel
12 x 12 x 1.50 in.
Acrylic and enamel on panel
12 x 12 x 1.50 in.
Food, as with all of culture, is inextricably linked to broader socioeconomic issues. In an era when our lives (and the food we consume) are easily shared online, societal perceptions and attitudes toward a range of topics are telling in how we decide what’s good or bad, tasteful or shameful, or indicative of wealth or poverty. Larusso approaches these issues with her paintings, ultimately exploring how we view ourselves and others.
Acrylic and enamel on panel
12 x 12 x 1.50 in.
Acrylic and enamel on panel
12 x 12 x 1.50 in.
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 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. She currently lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky.