C. J. Lori
A Clearing in the Woods
Oil on canvas
20" x 30"
Website: cjlori.com
Instagram: @c.j.lori
About | C. J. Lori is an oil painter living in Brookline, MA. Her work reflects her fascination with the natural world, and her interests in literature, anthropology, and psychology. Often called “Neo-surrealism” or “magic realism,” Lori’s paintings explore the complex relationship between humanity and the environment. Her work emphasizes often contradictory sensations: clarity and mystery; excitement and sorrow; beauty and decay.
Committed to art activism, Lori is a member of Shared Habitat Earth and I3C artists, two artist groups focused on environmental issues and climate change. She served as Exhibitions Chair and Vice President at Galatea Fine Art in Boston from 2017-2020. Lori’s artwork has been exhibited in solo and group shows throughout New England, New York, and Chicago. She is represented by 13 Forest Gallery in Arlington, Array Contemporary in Boston, and Indigo House Gallery in Duxbury.
Lori began painting her “Trees Leaving” series after a trip to France in 2005. She was inspired by the agricultural landscape and idyllic skies, and thinking about the threat we have become to our natural environment. She reimagined Magritte’s floating men in bowler hats as trees flying away. Occasionally, she will paint a figure into a “Trees Leaving” painting. In the snowless winter of A Clearing in the Woods, a man pokes at a small campfire, seemingly oblivious to the clearing becoming ever larger as more trees ascend away.
When Lori began this series, she never expected to paint more than sixty versions over the years since. History, changing seasons, different places she traveled, and her own neighborhood bordering Boston keep offering her new ideas. At times they arise solely from her imagination as an expression of grief and the longing for escape.
$3,500