In her large-scale and colorful paintings, Judith Lowry (born 1948) chronicles the stories of her family and the legends, traditions, and complexities of her Indigenous ancestry. Born to a Euro-Australian mother, and a father who traced his roots to Hammawi Band Pit River/Mountain Maidu/Washoe/Scots-Irish cultures, Lowry’s works reflect the Maidu/Pit River creation stories her father shared. She considers her paintings a modern extension of storytelling and a way of recording the oral histories of her family and community.
This retrospective exhibition features Lowry’s paintings alongside a concurrent exhibition featuring highlights from Lowry’s personal art collection that she recently donated to the Nevada Museum of Art. The conversations that unfold in Lowry’s paintings and the work of her friends and colleagues represent a lifetime of dialogue about ideas and issues that have shaped her life.
Lowry earned her B.A. in fine art from Humboldt State University, followed by an M.A. in painting and drawing from Chico State University. A resident of both Nevada City and Susanville, CA, and is an enrolled member of the federally recognized Pit River Tribe.
Lowry’s work has been exhibited widely and her paintings are included in the permanent collections of major museums including the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian; the Peabody Essex Museum; the Crocker Art Museum; the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, the Denver Art Museum, and the Nevada Museum of Art.
