Judith Lowry (artist)

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| name = Judith Lowry

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| birth_date = 1948

| birth_place = Washington, D.C., United States

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| nationality = Pit River Tribe

| education = Humboldt State University

| alma_mater = Chico State University

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Judith Lowry (born 1948 in Washington, DC) is a Native American artist. Based in Northern California, she is Maidu and Achomawi and enrolled in the Pit River Tribe. Lowry primarily works in acrylics on canvas.https://s3.amazonaws.com/PEM_artscape/pdf/judith_lowry_reference-03.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}

Life

Leonard Lowry, Maidu and Achomawi, a member of the Pit River Tribe was Judith Lowry's father.{{Cite web|url=https://www.southwestart.com/native-american-arts/judith_lowry|title=Native Arts | Judith Lowry|first=Dottie|last=Indyke|date=September 29, 2005}} She has stated, "My paternal family heritage is Mountain Maidu with blood ties to the Paiute, Washo, Modoc, Pit River tribes."[https://www.theunion.com/news/twi/let-us-not-forget-the-nisenan-people/ Let us not forget the Nisenan people], Judith Lowry, 2012 Her mother, June Shirley Harrison, is Australian. Her parents met during World War II when her father was stationed in her mother's native Sydney, Australia. He was one of the most decorated Native American soldiers."Full Disclosure: Autobiographical paintings continue a storytelling tradition". PEM Connections. November–December 2008.

Initially Lowry didn't attend college; she got married, raised children, and worked as a hairdresser. She also took photographs at weddings and community events. She settled in her father's hometown of Susanville, California. Eventually, in her thirties Lowry did go back to school, and attended Humboldt State University.

Art career

{{quote box|"There is one distinction I have to make. I am not a painter.
I paint. I am a storyteller."|align = right}}

Lowry won her first competition at the age of six for a drawing of a Hieronymus Bosch-esque world with strange vibrant creatures.

Lowry earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Humboldt State University and a Master of Fine Arts in painting and drawing from Chico State University.{{cite web| url = http://www.iaia.edu/museum/vision-project/artists/judith-lowry/ | title = Judith Lowry | publisher = Institute of America Indian Art | first = Lara | last = Evans }} Lowry's work is influenced by Frank Day, Harry Fonseca, Fra Angelico, Giotto, and Sandro Botticelli. Her works frequently reference themes including consumerism, fashion, relationships, death, and the representation of Native American people in contemporary culture.{{cite book| last1 = Lowry|first1 = Judith| first2 = Lucy R. | last2 = Lippard| first3 = Theresa| last3 = Harlan| title = Illuminations: Paintings by Judith Lowry| url = https://archive.org/details/illuminationspai00lowr| url-access = registration| location = Santa Fe| publisher = Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian |date=1999| page = [https://archive.org/details/illuminationspai00lowr/page/9 9]}} Her work is influenced by early Renaissance painting and the tradition of native California story-telling. Lowry frequently works in oil and acrylics creating "larger-than-life" images that favour "allegorical sensibilit[ies]."{{cite web| url = http://www.al.csus.edu/sota/ulg/pastexhibits/images-of-identity/site/lowry.html| title = Judith Lowry| publisher = University Library Gallery, at CSU Sacramento| work = Images of Identity| date = 2004}}

Lowry's studio is in Nevada City, California.{{Cite web|url=http://www.mcguiresplace.net/Events-Out%20and%20About%20With%20Judith%20Union%20article/|title=Nevada City artist}}

Exhibitions

Lowry's paintings have been exhibited at the Crocker Art Museum, the Wheelwright Museum, the Carl M. Gorman Museum, the Heard Museum, and the George Gustav Heye Center. In 2012, she showed at the Pence Gallery.[http://www.sacbee.com/2012/12/21/5066063/art-judith-lowrys-show-at-pence.html Victoria Dalkey: Judith Lowry's show at Pence Gallery depicts aspects of Native California - Theater - The Sacramento Bee] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140323044941/http://www.sacbee.com/2012/12/21/5066063/art-judith-lowrys-show-at-pence.html |date=2014-03-23 }}

Lowry's work was part of Stretching the Canvas: Eight Decades of Native Painting (2019–21), a survey at the National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center in New York.{{cite web |title=Stretching the Canvas: Eight Decades of Native Painting |url=https://americanindian.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/item?id=975 |website=National Museum of the American Indian |access-date=7 March 2021}}

Collections

Lowry's paintings are in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian and Peabody Essex Museum.{{cite web|title=Collections Search|url=http://www.americanindian.si.edu/searchcollections/results.aspx?catids=3&partytxt=Judith+Lowry&src=1-2|website=National Museum of the American Indian|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|accessdate=28 June 2014}}{{cite web|title=My Aunt Viola|url=http://explore-art.pem.org/object/native-american-art/E303666|website=Native American Art|publisher=Peabody Essex Museum|accessdate=28 June 2014}}

Judith Lowry (artist)

Life

Art career

Exhibitions

Collections

References

Further reading