Statement
I am the granddaughter of North Korean and Franco-Spanish refugees, and the daughter of parents who fled dictatorships in Uruguay (my father) and Argentina (my Korean mother). Each painting begins with an archival photo and becomes something layered, broken apart, and remade, much like the way these histories, cultures, and migrations shaped my sense of self. My portraits mix blocks of illusionistic spaces with patterned, textured, and flattened abstraction, exploring what it means to exist between multiple ethnic identities. I often set aside the brush, using unexpected tools such as sneakers, Brillo pads, or Q-Tips, to stamp, scrape, and press color into playful, unpredictable patterns. This process of rule-breaking is more than technique; it echoes the choices of my grandparents and parents, who broke from the rules of their homelands to seek freedom. My work is about reframing, retelling. It is about how individuals reclaim agency in the face of adversity. Through painting, a historical family image is cut up, rearranged, and brightened to restructure the narrative from trauma to fortitude, from victimhood to human possibility.
Biography
Jennifer Lugris's work has been honored with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the City of Sacramento, and Wexford Science and Technology. Solo exhibitions include institutions such as the Richmond Art Center, Los Medanos College, Merced College, and Verge Center for the Arts. Her paintings have found permanent homes in collections at the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Facebook, and UC Davis Health. Lugris earned her MFA from UC Santa Barbara and is based in Sacramento and Los Angeles, CA