Lori Larusso | Gaze & Garnish — Tinney Contemporary

Tinney Contemporary is proud to present Gaze & Garnish, a solo exhibition of works by Lori Larusso. The exhibition will be on display from November 16 to December 21, 2024. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, November 16 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. with an additional reception in conjunction with the Downtown First Saturday Art Crawl on December 7, 2024

The works in Gaze & Garnish emerged from Lori Larusso’s continued examination of femininity and the domestic sphere. With her signature balance of technical craft and humor, the artist composes highly-stylized representations of decorative objects, providing inroads to discussions of gender, class, and the act of looking.

Here, the artist has honed in on the ceramic works of Betty Lou Nichols, a mid-century ceramicist whose works gained renown during WWII. Nichols’ signature vessel—a vase resembling a doll-like caricature of a woman’s head—became immensely popular in the 1960s, spawning countless mass-market knockoffs. These heavily-lashed, hollow busts often bear the effigies of pop-cultural icons (such as Marilyn Monroe or Jackie Kennedy), appearing to sprout floral arrangements from the tops of their downcast visages.

Larusso’s brightly-hued depictions of Nichols’ vases are accompanied by equally vibrant citrus curls and other drink garnishes which appear on colorful backdrops, isolated from their implied cocktails. These embellishments, which are cursorily discarded, epitomize luxury and excess. The exhibition also features flattened reproductions of destroyed flower vases which are mounted at foot level and extend onto the floor.

Larusso’s elevation of the ornamental highlights the complexities of representation, specifically with regard to traditional depictions of femininity. Gaze & Garnish alludes to the power dynamics of looking; the ways in which women and femmes are objectified and relegated to the margins. This subjugation is carried out across mediums: viewers are often presented an image of femininity which has been stripped of context and agency, and exists to bear the gaze of a male protagonist. By abstracting and re-presenting these carefully-cultivated objects—whose primary function is to provide visual pleasure—Larusso invites viewers to interrogate the processes of objectification.

Artist’s Bio

Lori Larusso is an American visual artist working primarily with themes of domesticity and foodways. Her body of work encompasses paintings and installations that explore issues of class, gender, and anthropocentrism, and how these practices both reflect and shape culture. Larusso’s work is exhibited widely in the US and is included in various public collections such as KMAC Contemporary Art Museum, 21c Museum, as well as numerous private collections. She has been awarded noteworthy residency fellowships including Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, McColl Center for Art + Innovation, Sam & Adele Golden Foundation, and MacDowell where she received a Milton and Sally Avery Fellowship. She is a recipient of the Kentucky Arts Council’s Al Smith Fellowship, Kentucky South Arts Fellowship, and multiple grants from the Great Meadows Foundation and the Kentucky Foundation for Women. 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 currently lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky and is represented by Galleri Urbane in Dallas, TX and Rubine Red Gallery in Palm Springs, CA.

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Artist’s Statement

In this body of work, I am considering themes of feminine beauty, decoration, and decorum through the lens of inanimate objects—specifically, flower vases shaped like women’s heads, and carefully carved, curled, and arranged (citrus) garnishes.

My fascination with these niche vases began with the story of Betty Lou Nichols, a ceramic artist whose creations emerged from her kitchen table in the 1940s while her husband served in World War II. Her vases, with their doll-like faces, thick downcast eyelashes, and decorative flourishes such as flowers in the hair or décolletage, garnered a cult following in the 1960s and again in the 1990s. The mid-century knockoffs, featuring likenesses of iconic women like Marilyn, Jackie, and Rita further emphasized the trend, blending a hyper-stylized femininity with mass production.

What intrigues me about these vases is their “figurative” representation, a portrayal that is thrice-removed—these paintings are not of women, but of sculptures of idealized caricatures of women. The vases are designed explicitly for the gaze, serving as objects of visual pleasure. The flowers placed within them, too, have a performative aspect—they are cultivated, picked, and arranged specifically for decoration, mirroring the vase's purpose. Both the vase and the flowers are objects of beauty and admiration, and both their roles are distinctly ornamental.

The vases, with their emphasis on idealized femininity, can be contrasted with the tradition of bronze busts depicting powerful or famous men. Bronze busts often serve to commemorate and honor individuals for their historical contributions, reflecting a more serious and reverential approach to representation. They are typically placed in museums or government buildings, where they function as solemn symbols of historical legacy and respect. In contrast, Nichols's vases, while also serving a decorative function, exist in a different realm. They are not meant to hold historical significance or to inspire reverence but rather to occupy a domestic space, adding charm and whimsy to home environments.

Garnishes add color, flavor, or decoration to a meal or drink. They represent a tradition of luxury and refinement, signaling status and sophistication. Usually small, always decorative, these bits are briefly celebrated for sensory pleasures but quickly set aside or discarded. In these still life paintings, I celebrate the colors and shapes of the garnish, isolating them from their usual context to invite viewers to appreciate their aesthetic value divorced from the main dish or drink which they serve to enhance.