James Lavadour

Raised on the Umatilla Indian reservation, Lavadour expresses his love of the terrain through his paintings’ and prints’ predominant subject matter, landscapes. Use of panels and reliance on layering are two typical processes he utilizes to visually interpret his layered and textured panoramas. A self-trained painter who worked different jobs after leaving high school early, Lavadour began exhibiting in the 1970s in Seattle. In 1991, he won the Betty Bowen Award from the Seattle Museum of Art; in 1994, the Oregon Governor’s Arts Award; in 1995, he was a Rutgers Center for Innovative Printmaking Fellow; and in 1998, he was a Joan Mitchell Painting Fellow. Lavadour is co-founder of Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts, a non-profit organization formed on the Umatilla reservation in 1992 that fosters and attracts local and national artists.