Kari Lønning
biography |
portfolio | artists listing
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Arkansas Arts Center, Decorative Arts Museum, Little Rock, AR
Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA
Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, WI
Connecticut Commission on the Arts, Hartford, CT
Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC
Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI
Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington,
DC
United States Embassy, Bangkok, Thailand
The White House Collection of American Craft, Washington,
DC
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2004 Flinn Gallery, Greenwich, CT
2003 Baskets Now, National Basketry Organization, Yeiser
Art Center, Paducah, KY
2002-03 Contemporary Baskets, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles,
CA
2002 Baskets Now: USA, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock,
AR
Gifts from Robyn and John Horn, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven,
CT
Basketry Today: A World of New Methods & New Materials, New Hampshire
Institute of Art, Manchester, NH
From the Indigenous to the Outrageous: Contemporary American Baskets, Ohio
Craft Museum, Columbus, OH
2001 One Person Exhibition, Nordic Heritage Museum, Seattle, WA
Objects for Use: Handmade by Design, American Craft Museum, New York, NY
2000 Who Knows Where or When: Arts Interpret Geography & Time, Charles
A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, WI
Living With Form, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
Fellowship Artist Exhibit, Connecticut Commission on the Arts, Hartford,
CT
Featured Artist, Northeast Basketmakers Guild Biennial Exhibition, Pawtucket,
RI
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Kari G. Lønning has been a full time basketmaker since 1975. She
is known for her use of patterning, the "hairy technique" and
double walled constructions. Many of her vessel forms are reminiscent
of her early training in ceramics. She works extensively with graphic
patterns, color, and she dyes round reed with commercially colorfast
dyes. Lønning is an avid gardener and her love of color often
reflects the plants by which she is surrounded. Also, many of her vessel
forms reflect her early training in ceramics.
ABOUT THE WORK
The double wall constructions are where my experience, experiments, training and techniques all come together. The idea of making double wall construction came from my background in pottery–I liked pots with heavy rims. To create this in a basket, I first came up with the "inner edge", taking it to the next step of a double-wall. These "thick" edges gave the baskets an illusion of weight.