Lucinda Parker
Russo Lee Gallery is pleased to present Good Grief (Redux) by Lucinda Parker. This deeply personal exhibition honors her 53-year marriage to her late husband, Steve. Known for her dynamic compositions and bold treatment of landscape, Parker takes a new step in this exhibition by integrating the human figure into her work, an artistic evolution inspired by profound love and loss. This body of work is an exploration of shared hikes and time spent together in Oregon’s high mountain meadows, particularly along the basalt ridges and snowfields surrounding Mt. Hood. Parker’s signature approach to landscape becomes a vessel for memory, as monumental boulders and sweeping views of the mountain frame the emotional terrain of enduring companionship and grief. “To paint is to love again,” Parker says. “This series is my effort to create a group of paintings about Steve and myself and our life together. Nature provides a surrounding, enduring comfort to my eyes and my heart. Cubism loaded with emotion.” The exhibition, originally scheduled last year, was postponed due to a fire in a neighboring space to the gallery. During this unexpected pause, Parker continued to paint, adding new works to the show that deepen its reflection on resilience, remembrance, and renewal.
Originally from Boston, Lucinda Parker received a Bachelor of Arts jointly from Reed College and the Pacific Northwest College of Art, in Portland, OR, and a Master of Fine Art from Pratt Institute, in New York. Her work has been exhibited at numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the Pacific Northwest and nationally. The Portland Art Museum honored her with a mid-career retrospective in 1995, and the Boise Art Museum presented a solo exhibition of her work in 2002. She was included in the Bonnie Bronson Fellows twenty-year retrospective at Lewis and Clark College, Portland OR. Parker's work is also part of various collections throughout the Pacific Northwest. Major public collections include the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University, the Portland Art Museum, and the Seattle Art Museum. Public commissions can be found at the Oregon Convention Center, Portland City Hall, and the federal courthouse in Bakersfield, CA. Recently, Parker completed a major public commission through the Washington State Arts Commission for the Department of Labor & Industries in Tumwater, WA.