Lori Larusso

I explore nuanced relationships with food and mediated images of food and food-adjacent accoutrements, and, I examine the static and shifting ways humans communicate care for one another through various types of labor. My paintings reflect on the totemic potential of food, and how the food item itself—the way it’s produced, packaged, prepared, presented, consumed—can serve as an indication of class. Additionally, I am investigating how social norms embedded into class-based coding of food are both contradictory and constantly in flux.

Before moving from Rhode Island to Kentucky a decade ago I decided to assimilate by taking up bourbon drinking and reading Flannery O’Connor. While I haven’t taken to painting images of horses, it could be said that my time in Kentucky has come full circle when I began a series of Bourbon Cocktail paintings. These works applaud the pure beauty and artistry of carefully prepared cocktails, serving as a reminder of celebration, indulgence, and locale.

For 20 years without a pause, solo and group exhibitions of Lori’s work have graced local, national and international venues. Her consistently experimental and evolving work has earned her numerous awards and residency fellowships, including multiple awards from the Great Meadows Foundation, SouthArts, Kentucky Arts Council, Kentucky Foundation for Women. Additionally, Lori has been awarded numerous residency fellowships from institutions including Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, McColl Center for Art + Innovation, MacDowell, and chaNorth.

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). She lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky.