Lorna Ritz | Bio

I received a BFA from Pratt Institute, changing the course of my painting life into pure abstraction, under the instruction of painter James Gahagan, who was a very important teacher for me. I received an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, both in painting and sculpture, (working the 2-D concepts into 6’ welded steel, and casting in bronze). I taught R.I. School of Design, Brown University, University of Minnesota, and Dartmouth College, and was “Artist-in-Residence” several times at the Vermont Studio Center. I have taught painting, drawing and art history for four years at Western New England College, (my present position.) I have offered lectures at the Instituto de Belles Artes, (Medellin, Colombia); American University, (D.C. and in Italy); Humboldt State University, (CA); The New York Studio School, and the Institute for American Universities in Aix-en-Provence, (France). I have traveled through the U.S. Information Agency to Malta and Honduras to teach at the universities there, and my paintings have been exhibited through the Art-in-Embassies Program in D.C. in Africa and Guatemala, as well as at the Divinity Center at Yale University, the Bowery Gallery in NYC, Hillyer Gallery at Smith College, the Fine Arts Center’s University Gallery at the University of Massachusetts; the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College, and the Fine Arts Center in Provincetown, MA. I had a solo exhibition at the Huntington Museum in Windsor, Connecticut. My paintings were exhibited at “The Painting Center,” (Soho), NYC, and at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, and were included in a group exhibition at The Washington Art Association in Washington Depot, CT., in September, 2003. I had a solo exhibition at The Oxbow Gallery in Northampton, MA. 2004, and 2007. I had a solo show at ‘The Creative Center’ in Chelsea, NYC, in June, 2006, and another solo at Gallery Anthony Curtis, Boston, Massachusetts , 2007. My most recent solo exhibition was at the ‘Firehouse Gallery’ in Newburyport, Massachusetts, (2008). Two upcoming exhibitions will be former students’ exhibition at Julian Scott Memorial Gallery of Johnson State College, Vermont, and I will have a solo exhibition at the Hopper House in NYack, New York this year. My paintings are collected by Hale and Dorr Law Firm, (Boston), Bank of Boston, Johnson and Johnson, (N.J.), Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, (N.M.), the Burnham Institute, (CA.), and Veridex, (NJ), and OSI Pharmaceutical in Long Island. I have three times received the Pollock-Krasner Grant Award, as well as a Kittredge Fund Grant from Harvard University. In 2001, I taught painting through the American University, (D.C.). in Umbria, Italy. In April 2004 I lectured at The New York Studio School, and subsequently taught a “Drawing Marathon” in October, 2004, and presently teach painting at Western New England College in Springfield, MA. I have been a “Guest Critic” at The Vermont Studio Center since 1991, (scheduled to return again this next year), and I was ‘cultural ambassador’ through the International Residency Program ‘at the Augusta Savage Gallery at U.Mass), to exchange ideas with artists in South Africa , 2007, a recipient of The Puffin Foundation Grant to work with prisoners, (teaching a painting workshop), a George Sugarman Foundation Grant Award, 2007, an Artists’ Fellowship, NYC, 2008, and The Haven Foundation Award, Maine 2008 & 2011.