About My Work

My contemporary work often merges social, psychological, and/or political observations. I generally work in series, giving myself a theme or a central idea from which to begin. I work in many different mediums, depending on how I envision the works. I like to use unusual, often recycled, materials in addition to traditional paint or plaster. Some people think or expect that you should make the same kinds of art forever because it creates a convenient narrative. I want my work to embody my inherent contradictions.

By concealing and tangling the visual language, there is a secretness—it forces me and the viewer to look for layers of meaning; we are left to untangle a meaning, or not. It isn’t essential because my goal is to find grace in some of unusual materials, and to make art that is beautiful. My hope is that we look deeper, beneath the beauty lies the message which is often not so pretty.

“The sheer bigness of the world makes me feel lonely to the bone. The world is so huge that people are always getting lost in it. There are too many ideas and things and people, too many directions to go. I believe that the reason it matters to care passionately about something is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size.” (quote from The Orchid Thief)

Text for Bodies of Work

I Wish I Had A River

This body of work is ongoing. It has become a personal biography of my family and of friends

and every person. It speaks to loss and unfulfilled dreams. Working with a boat form, I have built this series on thoughts of escaping, and conjuring a sense of floating away on dreams of something different, something better.

I began the series when my youngest brother died. He had been working very hard to finish a house he had been building for years. He wanted to finally sell it and move to a warmer climate (Washington state to the Southwest)). He died before he accomplished his dream. I was overcome with a sadness of losing him, but also for his personal losses. The title of the series uses words from an old song by Joni Mitchell…I Wish I Had a River…

Because there is no real escape from what life deals us, the boats are often presented in a fragile state. They are unfinished, in disrepair, abandoned, ruined, discarded…. They will not get us to where we want to be. It seems as if this is an ode to tragedy, but it is simply about life.

Another Series

A Woman Under the Influence

“A Woman Under the Influence” is a conceptual series in which I used materials that are commonly thought of as craft materials for “women’s work”—yarn, felt, sequins, etc. These homely materials become vehicles for abstraction, conveying abstract thought. The artworks, and the materials are a tribute to the work women do to maintain balance in their own lives and in their families and society: materials that allow them to be useful and to escape thoughts of pain, anger, sorrow—political, social, or psychological. The thinking may be painful, but the work is meditative and calming.

Art Exibitions

Katrina Lasko

Born: Portland, Oregon

Lives in: Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Education: University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada

BFA–Painting and Sculpture, 1977; MA work–Photography, 1977-1979

Solo Exhibitions

2019 Song & Dance.Sierra Arts Foundation Gallery, Reno, NV

2018 I Wish I Had a River. Sierra Arts Foundation, Reno, NV

2016 A Woman Under the Influence.McKinley Art Center, Reno, NV

2015 In the Garden. Art Indeed, Reno, NV

2013 Textural Connections. Tucson Pima Arts Council, Tucson, AZ

2011 I Wish I Had a River. Halcyon Gallery, Terre Haute, Indiana

2010 Telling Stories. Flux Contemporary, Albuquerque, NM

2009 Don’t Look. Matrix Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

Discord.Park Fine Art. Albuquerque, NM

2007 Hurts. Matrix Fine Art Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

1998 I am not Marcel Duchamp. Fisher Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

1996 More vs Minimal. Convent Gallery, Bernalillo, NM

1992 Faith. Calnan Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

1987 Transitory. Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV

1986 Lost. Manville Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno, NV

1985 No Eden. Jennifer Pauls Gallery, Sacramento, CA

1984 Catholic Girl. Jennifer Pauls Gallery, Sacramento, CA

1983 Anne at 26/I am blind; my dog is dead. Theater Gallery, Reno, NV

1981 Grace/Disgrace. Charleston Heights Gallery, Las Vegas, NV

1980 Dead Dancing Girls. Charleston Heights Gallery, Las Vegas, NV

Dead Dancing Girls. White Gallery, Sacramento, CA

1979 Small Murders. Sheppard Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno, NV

Group Exhibitions

2023 Group Show. Jen Tough Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

12 X 12. Harwood Art Center, Albuquerque, NM

2022 Desert. Tubac Center for the Arts, Tubac, AZ

New Works by Member Artists. Untitled Gallery, Tucson, AZ

2021. Emergence. Untitled Gallery, Tucson, AZ

2020. Art as Resilience, Resistance, Respite. Untitled Gallery, Tucson, AZ

2019 By Number. Sierra Arts Foundation Gallery. Reno, NV

2018 The City of Trembling Leaves. Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV

2017 Circus. Truckee Meadows College Gallery, Reno, NV

2016 Panic. Wedge Ceramics Studios, Reno, NV

2015 Art Blast. Reno, NV

2014 High Fiber. Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ

Beauty of the Beast. The Drawing Studio, Tucson, AZ

2013 Metal Stone Wood. Tohono Chul Gallery, Tucson, AZ

2012 Running Amok. Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ

2011 Juried Group Show. New Studio A.D., Albuquerque, NM

2010 International Park Fine Art Exhibit. Park Fine Art, Albuquerque, NM

2010 Park Fine Art Exhibit. Gallery Edel, Takarazuka-City, Hyogo,Japan

Park Fine Art Exhibit. Dea-San Museum of Art/Korea, S. Korea

Subversive Stitching. Through the Flower Gallery, Belen, NM

2009 International Park Fine Art Exhibit. Park Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

Park Fine Art Exhibit. Kyung-In Art Center, In-Sa Dong, Korea

2008 The Cradle Project. Albuquerque, NM

Collect: Inside 8. Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM

2007 Real Work Up to Now. Salon Mar Graff, Tesuque, NM

2006 Small is More. Harwood Art Center, Albuquerque, NM

2005 Other Women. Farrell Fischoff Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2004 Drawing. SKF Gallery, Santa Fe., NM

2002 Sculpture in the Round. Governor’s Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2000 Water. Inpost Artspace, Albuquerque, NM

1996 White Gallery Artists. New Space, Sacramento, CA

Sculpture Invitational. College of Santa Fe, NM

1996 Elements in Transition. Firestone Art Space, Santa Fe, NM

New Mexico/New Work. Copeland/Rutherford Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

1995 Faculty Exhibit. College of Santa Fe Art Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

1994 Full-time Artists/Part-time Teachers. CSF Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

1993 Invitational Works on Paper. Dartmouth Street Gallery, ABQ, NM

Gallery Artists. Shidoni Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

1992 Gallery Artists. Calnan Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

Sculpture Invitational. College of Santa Fe, NM

1990 Gallery Artists. Beckerman Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM

Faculty Exhibit. CFSF Fine Arts Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

1989 Nevada Annual. Sheppard Gallery, Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV

1988 Three Rivers Art Expo. San Juan College, Farmington, NM

On the Wall/Off the Wall. Center for Contemporary Art, SF, NM

Figurative Painting, Eastern Washington University, Spokane, WA

1987 Gallery Artists. Sena West Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

Figures in Abstraction. Contemporary Art Gallery, Sunnyvale, CA

1986 Self-Image (Introductions.,Palo Alto Cultural Center, Palo Alto, CA

Nevada Biennial. Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV

Nevada Biennial. Alta Ham Fine Arts Gallery, UNLV, Las Vegas. NV

1985 Northern California Artists. Downey Museum, Downey, CA

S he. Pence Gallery, Davis, CA

1984 Jennifer Pauls’ Artists.American River College, Sacramento, CA

Nevada Sites #1. Art Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno, NV

1883 Reno Show. Chan Elliot Gallery, Sacramento, CA

Reno/Seattle Exchange. Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA

Four from The West. St. Mary’s College Gallery, St. Mary’s City, MD

1982 Invitational. Nevada West Gallery, Reno, NV

5 X 5 Invitational. White Gallery, Sacramento, CA

1981 Works by 10. Alta Galleries, Sacramento, CA

IN/SIGHTS: Self-Portraits by Women. Marcuse Pfeiffer Gallery, NY

Contemporary Reno Artists. Reed Whipple Gallery, Las Vegas, NV

1979 IN/SIGHTS . CA Invitational. Open Ring Gallery, Sacramento, CA

1978 Stockton National. Pioneer Museum, Stockton, CA

1977 Sculpture Invitational. UNR Gallery, UNR, Reno, NV

1976 Nevada Annual. Nevada Art Gallery, Reno, NV

katrina lasko art

Text for Bodies of Work

I Wish I Had A River

Another Series

A Woman Under the Influence

Art Exibitions

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