Artist and activist Judith Lowry (Mountain Maidu/Pit River/Washoe) brings stories to life with her evocative figurative style and gemstone colors.
“I am not a painter. I’m a storyteller who uses paint.” Judith Lowry’s quote greets visitors to her exhibition at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, a collection of intensely colorful paintings that tower over viewers with overwhelming scale. Lowry (Mountain Maidu/Pit River/Washoe) is an accomplished artist and activist whose works share stories of her community and family traditions. Living pictures depicting vivid stories, her larger-than-life yet deeply personal canvases add meaningful insight to the broader narrative of American art.
Judith Lowry (Hammawi Band Pit River/Mountain Maidu/Washoe), High Rollers: Eye in the Sky, 1999; Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe © Judith Lowry
On view through November 16, 2025, The Art of Judith Lowry brings the artist’s oral histories to vibrant life through her evocative figurative style and gemstone colors. The enormous, visually striking tableaux elicit a powerful dramatic effect that plays on the eyes and emotions. “These paintings are not to be interpreted as myths or fantasy,” says Ann Wolfe, chief curator at the Nevada Museum of Art. “Many of these artworks tell the stories of real people, real communities, and real relations. We’ve had people walk into the museum from rural areas where Judith’s extended family lives and say,‘That’s my grandmother,’ ‘That’s my auntie.’ Some of the paintings honor loved ones who have passed, and we sometimes see tears on the faces of friends and family members who knew them.”
Judith Lowry (Hammawi Band Pit River/Mountain Maidu/Washoe), The Good Marriage, 1997; Private Collection © Judith Lowry
Lowry’s retrospective runs alongside another exciting exhibition, The Lowry & Croul Collection of Contemporary Native American Art—the debut showcase of 125 works donated to the museum in 2024 by Lowry and her husband, Brad Croul. Focusing on what Lowry describes as the “first wave” of Native California modern art, this impressive collection spans a variety of media: painting, sculpture, photography, beading,and weaving. Works by several noteworthy West Coast and Great Basin artists appear in the exhibit, including Frank Day (Konkow Maidu), Frank LaPena (Nomptipon Wintu), and Harry Fonseca (Nisenan Maidu/Hawaiian/Portuguese).
Judith Lowry (Hammawi Band Pit River/Mountain Maidu/Washoe), Edna at Honey Lake, 1999/2012; Collection of the Nevada Museum of Art, gift of Judith Lowry © Judith Lowry
“Lowry, who is now in her 70s, began collecting in the 1990s and her approach was deeply personal and often informal,” Wolfe says. “Many of the artworks she acquired resonated with her as a storyteller. These artworks—and Judith’s artworks represent an important time in American art history when Indigenous artists were entering the art historical discourse for the first time and asserting their voices.”
From the October 2025 Issue
Cover Image: Judith Lowry (Hammawi Band Pit River/Mountain Maidu/Washoe), Welgatim's Song, 2001; Crocker Art Museum, gift of the artist, 2009.113 © Judith Lowry
