Cynthia Lahti (born 1963) is an American

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...

ist from

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, who works in many mediums: "from collage to ceramics, altered books, and painting".

Early life and education

Lahti was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1963. She attended Woodrow Wilson High School, and in 1985 earned a B.F.A. at the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

. In 1989 she attended the

Pacific Northwest College of Art The Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) is an art school of Willamette University and is located in Portland, Oregon. Established in 1909, the art school grants Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees and graduate degrees including the Master of Fine ...

, and in 1992 she studied at the

Oregon College of Art and Craft Oregon College of Art and Craft (OCAC) was a private art college in Portland, Oregon. It granted Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees as well as art-focused certificates. The college offered an Artist-in-Residence program and pro ...

. Her post-graduate work was at

Pilchuck Glass School Pilchuck Glass School is an international center for glass art education. The school was founded in 1971 by Dale Chihuly, Anne Gould Hauberg (1917-2016), and John H Hauberg (1916-2002). The campus is located on a former tree farm in Stanwood, Wa ...

Stanwood, Washington Stanwood is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. The city is located north of Seattle, at the mouth of the Stillaguamish River near Camano Island. As of the 2010 census, its population is 6,231. Stanwood was founded in 1866 ...

Critical reception

Lahti's works are held in collections at

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

Boise Art Museum The Boise Art Museum (BAM) is located at 670 Julia Davis Drive in Boise, Idaho, and is part of a series of public museums and cultural attractions in Julia Davis Park. It is the permanent home of a growing collection of contemporary realism, moder ...

King County King County is located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population was 2,269,675 in the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Washington, and the 13th-most populous in the United States. The county seat is Seattle, also the st ...

Public Art Collection and

Oregon Health & Science University Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is a public research university focusing primarily on health sciences with a main campus, including two hospitals, in Portland, Oregon. The institution was founded in 1887 as the University of Oregon Medi ...

Portland Art Museum The Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it one of the oldest art museums on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the US. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum becam ...

said: "Her art practice encompasses drawing, collage, and sculpture and is influenced by human artifacts from ancient times to the present, as well as by personal experiences and emotions."

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

reviewer Leah Ollman wrote, "Cynthia Lahti’s figures shape-shift from clay to stuffed animal, photograph or tree branch, from one form of graceful to another, or from delicate to endearingly clumsy."

Art Forum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably, ...

called her "a long-underrecognized artist’s artist", writing of her works in various media, "Lahti’s purposefully raw, emotionally direct objects bring to mind the accidental elegance of childhood craft projects, but here the results are fraught with disturbing nuances that make a viewer wonder: Can one feel nostalgia for pain?" The Zentrum für Keramik in Berlin said her "work explores human emotions through the evocative power of the figure." The

Portland Institute for Contemporary Art The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) is a contemporary performance and visual arts organization in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. PICA was founded in 1995 by Kristy Edmunds. Since 2003, it has presented the annual Time-Based ...

described her work as reflecting "a collective conscience with imagery that is deeply referential of Lathi’s own personal experience and emotions. Her sculpture, drawings and photographs become relics made from real materials, methods and symbols that hope to offer an explanation of reality."

Career

Lahti was a participating artist in ''Curator and Critic Tours Connective Conversations: Inside Oregon Art 2011-2014'', a program of the

Oregon Arts Commission The Oregon Arts Commission is a governor-appointed body of nine commissioners who allocate grants for artists based in the U.S. state of Oregon. It receives the bulk of its funding through the National Endowment for the Arts, the state, and the Or ...

sponsored by The Ford Family Foundation and the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

. Her work is held in the collections of

Portland Community College Portland Community College (PCC) is a public community college in Portland, Oregon. It is the largest post-secondary institution in the state and serves residents in the five-county area of Multnomah, Washington, Yamhill, Clackamas, and Colu ...

, the

Public Art Collection and

Selected exhibitions

* ''The Body, The Object, The Other.'' Craft Contemporary, Park La Brea, Los Angeles California, January – 25, 2020–January 10, 2021 * ''Let's Get Lost,'' PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, Oregon, June 30, 2015 – August 1, 2015 * ''Cynthia Lahti: Battle,'' PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, Oregon, March 3, 2015 – March 28, 2015 * ''We Tell Ourselves Stories In Order To Live,'' Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, January 18, 2014 – March 16, 2014

Awards

The

awarded Lahti a 2006 Artist Fellowship and a 2008 Career Opportunity Grant for Artists. In 2013 she won a Hallie Ford Fellowship for artists, and in 2015 she was awarded the Bonnie Bronson Fellowship. Lahti was awarded the 2017

Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation The Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation was established in 1976. It is an American nonprofit organization that provides funding for the arts. History The Gottlieb Foundation was established after Adolph Gottlieb’s death in 1974. Esther Gottlieb ...

Individual Support Grant. In 2018, the

selected her for an Individual Artist Fellowship.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lahti, Cynthia 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists Living people Oregon College of Art and Craft alumni 1963 births