Graham is recognized as one of the most influential abstract painters and printmakers of the Northwest. Born in Illinois, Lois Graham attended Knox College in Galesburg and in the 1950’s attended Washington University School of Fine Arts in St. Louis, Missouri. She formulated ideas about abstraction and the cohesiveness of composition and space in St. Louis during at the height of abstract expressionism. Graham was a guiding force in the Seattle art community, and acted as a mentor to many young artists. In 1992 she and her husband, Gene Graham, established the Union Art Co-op as a live/work space for Seattle artists. Lois Graham passed away October 9, 2007 at the age of 77.
Graham’s work radiates a sense of control, maintaining a constant and consistent abstract image-field, this characteristic groups her with second generation abstract expressionists such as Joan Mitchell, Philip Guston, and Jack Tworkov. Graham applied color in methodical, short, hatch-like strokes in her paintings and monoprints. “I like to play with paint.” Graham said, “I love to push it around to see what happens. To me, oil paint seems like a living organism: infinite modulations and transformations are possible…I try to evoke directly intense feelings, states of mind, which can’t be easily put into words.”
Foster/White Gallery has been exhibiting Graham’s work since 1981. Graham’s work is in many public and private collections in Washington and throughout the United States, including the Seattle Art Museum, the Seattle Opera House, and the Yao Cultural Center in Osaka, Japan.
Map to Lois Graham's public collections