PROFILE                                                STUDIO INFORMATION                                                 CONTACT

LIGHTJET PRINTS of the 6th Street Viaduct project Available through the studio

CONTACT

Archival Pigments Prints OF THE CHACO CANYON PROJECT available through:

Obscura Gallery, Santa Fe New Mexico

www.obscuragallery.net

info@obscuragallery.net

painting:

www.lawrencefodor.ONLINE

projects:

6th street viaduct
chaco canyon
grand canyon
dry tortugas
joshua tree
new york city

connect:

photographs & diversions: instagram
painting: instagram
info@lawrencefodorphotography.com

Lawrence Fodor began the pursuit of painting and photography when he was 10. He studied at Orange Coast College and received a BFA from Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, California where he also did graduate work towards his MFA in printmaking and painting. He has studied, traveled and lived in Europe, Asia, Central and South America. His work is exhibited and collected extensively in private and public collections including the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Laguna Art Museum, the New Mexico History Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth, Texas, among others.

In addition to a studio art career as a painter and printmaker he has continually pursued photography. The two mediums are in dialogue - but not with obvious visual references. There is a direct correlation between processing a photograph and the formal elements of drawing and painting. Light/dark, warm/cool, hue/tone, push/pull, dynamic range, cadence, rhythm, spatial tensions, focus, point, line, plane... and on. All of these elements are considered in both a photograph and a painting - wether in representational, abstracted or non-objective modalities. And, they are quite different. Photography concerns itself with the moment, while painting coalesces multiple moments.

Lawrence Fodor has worked and had studios in Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Barbara, California, Kathmandu, Nepal, Tucson, Arizona and Santa Fe, New Mexico. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Maintaining studios in both locations, his work includes painting using oil, alkyd resin and cold wax on canvas, panels, and wood boxes, monotypes, watercolors, other works on paper and photography.

The studios:

I have lived and worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico for over 25 years. Born in LA, I grew up in Orange County close to the beach. I studied at Otis when it was located near McArthur Park and after traveling the world, landed in Santa Barbara for a few years. In 1989 I moved to Santa Fe for change - seasons, lifestyle, and to find myself, and a voice for my painting and photography. The move proved to be a paradigm shift for me in literally every aspect of my life. In Santa Fe, I am surrounded by a spectacular high desert environment, legendary light, a remarkable network of friends, engaging professional support and my small wonderful family. I love living and working in New Mexico, but in September 2015 my partner and I leased a loft in downtown Los Angeles. It’s just south of the Arts District, east of the Fashion District, and on the fringes of the Produce and Industrial Districts. Encouraged by an architect friend in LA who also has roots in New Mexico, I realized I needed to be back in the city, in California - professionally and personally.

The loft is in an old furniture factory built in 1901. The brick, concrete and wood trussed building was developed as artist live/work spaces in 1989.  We have 2000 square feet of gorgeous ambient light filtering through vintage American industrial casement windows and skylights. Original wood floors, exposed brick walls, and a fire escape landing add to the rustic charm. It isn’t slick - but functions perfectly as a combined working studio and living space. I spend about half my year occupying the loft in alternate months. Primarily I paint and draw abstractly - very large or very small - and the space is perfect for painting on both scales. Currently the work is based on historic paintings that have influenced my sensibilities and practice. I also photograph a variety of subjects.  Presently I am focusing on architecture in Los Angeles and the desert landscape as I drive back and forth from Santa Fe to Los Angeles.

I think of the Los Angeles space as a private “artist-in-residence.” It provides physical and creative support for my career in the city where I grew up and went to school; I am fortunate to have this connecting thread to my roots. When I’m in LA, I am fully engaged and absorbed with my work and the city. I can pursue painting and photography any time of the day or night. The focus is singular. The space has given me the opportunity to live with the work in progress, consistently and constantly, for extended periods of time. The immersion in urban living has been invaluable in terms of refining my vision and absorbing the “edge” of the city. There is peculiar flux and severity in Los Angeles that is collaborating with my “romanticized” sensibilities and the resulting juxtaposition seems already evident in my painting and photography. It manifests itself in a more direct approach to mark-making and an open mind to diverse found realities in the lens of a camera.

Lawrence Fodor 2016