Lawrence Fodor

Biography
Lawrence Fodor (b. 1951) is a mixed media artist who integrates photography and painting throughout his practice. Specializing in abstraction with a thematic focus on nature, Fodor creates hybrid photo-based paintings. His process involves digitally layering multiple exposure photographs, which are then integrated with images of his in-progress paintings. These compositions are subsequently transferred onto paper and layers of oil paint in varying viscosities are applied. In this series, Fodor explores scientific chaos and complexity theories in relation to the natural world and the challenges posed by climate change volatility.

Lawrence Fodor has exhibited extensively, including at two US Embassies in Athens, Greece, and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. His work has been featured in publications such as the Santa Fe New Mexican, Art in America, Art News, and the Albuquerque Journal, among others. Fodor’s artwork is held in esteemed collections, including at the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives in Santa Fe, NM, the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, NM, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX, the LIOLI Museum in Minneapolis, MN, the Wichita Art Museum in Wichita, KS, and the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe, NM, among others. He has received accolades such as the City of Santa Fe Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant. Fodor maintains studios in both Los Angeles and Santa Fe.

Chaos appears everywhere in nature. The most minute disruption of a single component within a system will affect its evolution, rendering that system and its complex networks unpredictable. Similarly, one gesture, mark, a passage of color, or a shape can alter the architecture and structure of a drawing or painting—and when images are captured and layered with a camera, they record uniquely shifting moments of light, space, and time.

There is a precarious balance at the edge of chaos where systems are chaos enough to disclose invention through their disorder yet maintain sufficient structure not to splinter nor lose identity. This juncture, where the elements of a picture, a forest, or a life never lock into place yet do not disintegrate into instability, is where pathways open to explore the unknown. —Lawrence Fodor

Education
1976
Graduate Work toward MFA, Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA

1973
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Drawing/Printmaking Major, Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA

1971
Associate of Arts Degree, Fine Arts Major, Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA

1999
Vestiges II, solo exhibition, Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

1998
Vestiges, solo exhibition, Friesen Gallery, Seattle, WA

1997
Setting Prayers on Fire, solo exhibition, Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

Solo Exhibitions
2022
Il Giardino dei Segreto, SCAPE, Corona del Mar, CA

2021
Increscent, Friesen Gallery, Ketchum, ID

2020
Penumbra, SCAPE, Corona del Mar, CA

2019
a Tireless Hand, Friesen Gallery, Ketchum, ID

2017
Amended Mythologies, SCAPE, Corona del Mar, CA
Eclipse: Obscured Memories, Friesen Gallery, Ketchum, ID

2014
Without Gravity, Chiaroscuro Gallery @ Gebert Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM

2010
Ligatures and Kõan Boxes, Friesen Gallery, Seattle, WA
Ligatures & Kõan Boxes, Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM

2009
Kõan Boxes, Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe, NM

2008
Ligatures, SCAPE, Corona del Mar, CA

2007
Stochastic, Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM

2006
Summer Moon, SCAPE, Corona del Mar, CA

2005
Moment of Inertia, Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM

2002
A Given Moment, Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley, ID

1992
Perigrinari, Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

1991
Ex Arcanum Locus, Friesen Gallery, Seattle, WA

1990
In Lucem Proferre, Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley, ID

1989
Lawrence Fodor, Pamela Auchincloss Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA

1981
Lawrence Fodor, Pamela Auchincloss Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA

Select Group Exhibitions
2024
Trees, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2018
SMALLS, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM

2016
EMERGENCE, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM

2013
Again: Repetition, Obsession and Meditation, group exhibition with Agnes Martin, Sol Lewitt, Olafur Eliasson, Uta Barth, Chuck Close, Susan York and others, Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe, NM
Group Exhibition, a three-person exhibition with Florence Pierce & Mala Breuer, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM

2012
Holding Light 4: 315 paintings, a site-specific installation. ALCOVE 12.6: New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM
Holding Light 02: 81 paintings, an installation. Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach CA

2010
Speak for the Trees, Friesen Gallery, Ketchum, ID & Seattle, WA , Book published by Marquand Books

2004
Greek Contributions to Mankind – An Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, United States Embassy, Athens, Greece. Catalogue, Curator: Virginia Shore

2003
A Given Moment – Part 2, Two-person exhibition, Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2002
The Art Collection, Embassy of the United States of America, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

2001
Stream from the Clearing, Two-person exhibition, Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

1996
Two-Person Exhibition: w/ Lucy Brown, Diane Nelson Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA

1993
Two-Person Exhibition: w/ Holly Roberts, Jeannie Denholm Fine Art, Newport Beach, CA

Collections
Please contact the gallery for this information.

Awards
Please contact the gallery for this information.

Press
2017
Chaco Issue, Pasatiempo, Santa Fe New Mexican, multiple photographs illustrating various articles about Chaco Culture National Historical Park, April 21

2015
Eclipse: obscured memories / Lawrence Fodor paintings, recent paintings and essays by Cyndi Conn, Andria Friesen and Lawrence Fodor, Andrews Art Books, Santa Fe, NM
Chaco Canyon: wandering the past in the present, photographs and essay by the artist of Chaco Culture National Historic Park, Publisher: Andrews Art Books, Santa Fe, NM
Apparatus: in a painter’s studio, photographs of vignettes in the studio of Lawrence Fodor by the artist, essay by Aline Branduaer,  Publisher: Andrews Art Books, Santa Fe, NM

2012
Holding Light, a catalogue documenting the work for an installation of paintings at the Laguna Art Museum, essay by Cyndi Conn, Publisher: Andrews Art Books, Santa Fe, NM

2009
Speak for the Trees, Composed by Andria Friesen, publisher Marquand Books, Inc, Seattle, WA (illus. In Lucem Proferre VIII, 1989-90, oil on canvas)
Sarah S. King, Lawrence Fodor – Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Art in America, National Reviews, October  (illus: Ligature 12 Green/Blue-Green/Violet, oil/wax/alkyd on canvas)
Kõan Boxes, catalogue to accompany Lannan Foundation Exhibition, essay Timothy Rodgers Ph. D., Chief Curator, New Mexico Museum of Art, Publisher Lannan Foundation, Design Twin Palms Press

2007
Hollis Walker, Larry Fodor – Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Art News, Reviews: National, November (illus: Stochastic – Gamma, oil/wax on canvas)
Hollis Walker, Triumph of Intuition, Albuquerque Journal, Santa Fe/North, August 31 (illus: Koan Yellow/Green, 2006-07, oil/wax on canvas)

2001
Teri Thompson Randall, An Unscripted Dialog, Santa Fe New Mexican, September 7(illus: Dragonfly, oil/wax on canvas)

2000
Marcia Mayo, Editor, Greek Contributions to Mankind – An Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, Catalogue to accompany exhibition, 2002, United States Art in Embassies Program exhibition, (illus: Pegasus One, oil/wax on canvas, 1999-2000)

1997
Kathleen McCloud, Larry Fodor’s Continuing Process Dialogue, Santa Fe New Mexican, September 5 (illus: Setting Prayers on Fire #10, oil/wax on canvas)
Perrin Patterson, Artists to Watch in 1997, Santa Fean, Santa Fe, NM, May (illus: Setting Prayers on Fire #4, oil/wax on canvas)

Press Release
2024 Trees at Richard Levy Gallery