About Lorna
Lorna studied with Lennart Anderson in the 60’s at the Art Students League, NYC. and did undergraduate work w/Erlebacher, (sculptor), the painters Ernie Briggs, James Gahagan and Gabriel Laderman . She received a BFA from Pratt Institute, changing the course of her painting life into pure abstraction, under the instruction of Gahagan, (a student of Hans Hofmann), who was a very important teacher for her at Pratt. They remained close friends over decades, along with his sculptor/wood carver wife Pat DeGogorza. Ritz received an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1971, in both painting and sculpture, (welding steel, casting in bronze and iron). She welded steel for 25 years, but painting only became more compelling over time.
Teaching positions: R.I. School of Design, Brown University, University of Minnesota, and Dartmouth College in the 70’s and 80’s. She was a “Visiting Guest Critic” at the Vermont Studio Center since 1991-2013. She taught several ‘Drawing Marathons’ at the New York Studio School, & University of Massachusetts 1987-95, and recently was a lead teacher at Mount Gretna School of Art in Pennsylvania.
Residencies:
The Community Residency,‘C-Scape Dune Shacks, Provincetown, Massachusetts 2013, International Residency Program, through the Augusta Savage Gallery at University of Massachusetts, Cape Town, South Africa 2007, Helen Wurlitzer Foundation, Taos, New Mexico 2006, Arcadia National Park, “Artist-in-Residence”; Maine 2000, Fundacíon Valparaíso, Spain; painting residency, 1999, Vermont Council on the Arts, “Artist-in-Residence” Grant Award, 1981-83, Fellowship to Ossabaw Island Project, Georgia, 1978, Artist-in-Residence Grant to the Roswell Museum Art Center, New Mexico, 1975, Fellowship to MacDowell Colony, New Hampshire, 1972 & 1976.
Lectures:
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 respective universities, and my paintings have been exhibited through the Art-in-Embassies Program in D.C. in Africa, Guatemala, and Caracas; & the Divinity Center at Yale University, the Bowery Gallery in NYC, Hillyer Gallery at Smith College, the Fine Arts Center’s ‘The Contemporary Art Museum” at the University of Massachusetts; the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College, and the Fine Arts Center in Provincetown, MA.
Recent Group Exhibitions:
Anita Shapolsky Gallery, NYC, University of Southern Mississippi, “The Painting Center,” NYC, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, The Washington Art Association, Washington Depot, CT., ‘The Creative Center’ in Chelsea, NYC, Julian Scott Memorial Gallery of Johnson State College, Vermont, American Embassy in Caracas, Kathryn Schultz Gallery, Cambridge, MA., Edward Hopped House Museum, Nyack, New York, and 2017 Hannah Bacol Busch Gallery, Belaire, Texas, Cherry Stone Gallery, Wellfleet, MA., Oxbow Gallery, Northampton, MA.
Recent Solo Shows:
Oxbow Gallery, Easthampton, Massachusetts, Southern Vermont Art Center, Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst, MA., Oresman Gallery, Brown Fine Arts Center, Smith College, Augusta Savage Gallery, Contemporary Art Museum, both @University of Massachusetts, Amherst, The State House, Boston, (in Senator Rosenberg’s Office), The French Cultural Center, Boston, Aidron Duckworth Art Museum, Meriden, NH., French Cultural Center, Boston, MA.
Grants:
Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Individual Support Grant, NYC, Artists’ Fellowship, New York City, The Artist’s Resource Trust, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, The Haven Foundation, Maine, George Sugarman Foundation Grant Award, Puffin Foundation, New Jersey, The Kittredge Fund Grant, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant Award (4X), New York City, Esther & Adolph Gottlieb Foundation Emergency Grant Award, New York City, Ludwig Vogelstein Grant Award, New York City, Salmagundi Artists’ Fellowships, New York City, U.S. Information Agency Grant Award, Vermont, Partners of the Americas, to paint, exhibit, travel, lecture, and teach at the University; Honduras, 6 weeks, 1983, Blanche E. Colman Grant Award, Boston Safe Deposit & Trust Bank, Boston, and a Partial Scholarship to Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, 1968.
Public Collections:
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, Fleming Art Museum, University of Vermont, Provincetown Fine Art Museum, P’Town, Massachusetts
Massachusetts General Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Northampton, Massaachusetts
Provincetown Art Museum, P’Town, Massachsetts, WGBH, Boston,
Ocean House Art Collection, Watch Hill, Rhode Island, University of Michigan Museum of Contemporary Art, 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), The Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, The Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Childrens’ Hospital, Boston, Nataxix Global Asset Management, Boston, Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, Audax Group, Boston, Thompson Financial Management, Northampton, MA., United Health Group Corporate Headquarters, Minnetonka, Minnesota, McLean Hospital @ Harvard Medical School, Ipsen Pharmaceutical Company, Cambridge, MA.