James Lavadour: Land of Origin presents the most comprehensive survey to date of works by painter and printmaker James Lavadour (American, Walla Walla, b. 1951). Spanning five decades of his career, this retrospective exhibition catalogue celebrates Lavadour’s deep connection to the eastern Oregon landscape, particularly the Umatilla Indian Reservation and surrounding Blue Mountains region where the artist has spent most of his life, and recognizes his esteemed place in contemporary American painting. Through brushing, pouring, scraping, and dripping oil paints, Lavadour enacts a physical transformation akin to natural phenomena and shifting geological forces: a transfiguration of energy from one state into another. His most recent paintings and prints are spectacularly bold and luminous manifestations of the artist’s statement “the land and I are one.”
James Lavadour: Land of Origin includes essays by Danielle M. Knapp, the JSMA's McCosh Curator and curator of the exhibition, and guest writers Rebecca J. Dobkins, Marie Watt, and Meagan Atiyeh; an anthology of quotes by James Lavadour, edited by John S. Weber; an illustrated exhibition checklist with installation images; and the artist's curriculum vitae.