Hailing from the mountains of Northern Colorado, Kyri Lorenz has a long history of meddling with concepts of nature and identity, mysticism and mythology. The rabbit is a particular focus; as a subject, it is rich with duplicities of wildness and docility and occupies both fight and flight instincts in nature, and its proliferation all over the world results in mythologies from every conceivable culture.

Illustrative and stylistic choices are large motivators for their usual content, taking inspiration from masters like Albrecht Dürer and Egon Schiele, as well as modern styles found in comics and graphic design.Their intersection of various identities is a source of inspiration also: chronic physical and mental illness, gender and sexuality, and Old World spiritual longing are all intrinsic to their work. Though their primary fine art focus is block printing, they dabble in any medium they can get their hands on (and in). Traditional and digital drawing, comics both narrative and abstract, oil painting, photography, embroidery and textile arts, and ceramic sculpture are all part of their artistic repertoire.

If it involves creation and inspiration, Kyri is there, getting their mitts all over it and learning how best to make it serve their whims. Most of the time, this is easy and the technique or medium is more than happy to comply. Sometimes, it takes a little more finagling, but there’s always something to show for it at the end.

They got their BA in Visual Arts from Hollins University in Roanoke, VA, and are currently living and working in Cambridge, MA.

Publications

• Cover Design, Whispering Pine Yearbook, Estes Park High, Estes Park, CO, 2009 & 2010
• “The Trophy Hunter”, “Dragonnes Egg”, “[…] expecting seven more”, Cyborg Griffin, 2014
• “Fight Behavior” (cover), “Lepus Curpaeums”, The Anthem, Brandie Gray ed, Fall 2014
• “Westward Bound” (cover), The Anthem, Brandie Gray ed, Spring 2015
• “Not By Shield Nor Sword”, “Tsuki no Usagi”, Cyborg Griffin, Jade Soisson-Thayer ed, 2015
• “Here Comes Dat Sirrush (Oh Shit What Up)”, One Page Stinkers Issue 666, Issue 6, June 17, 2017
• “Goth Till You Drop”, One Page Stinkers Heat Wave, Issue 7, 2017
• “The Sword in the Store”, Spellbound, Vol 2, Boston Comics Roundtable, Beth Barnett et al ed, Fall 2017
• “Chronic”, We’re Still Here, Stacked Deck Press, Jeanne Thornton and Tara Avery ed, Summer 2018
• Being True, Boston Comics Roundtable, Renie Jesanis, Stephanie Glass, and Kyri Lorenz ed, Summer 2018

Exhibitions and Collaborative Projects

• Quaking Aspen – Nov 2013
  The third volume of the collection “magazine” Quaking Aspen, organized by Sue Johnson. The volume’s theme was The American Dream. Participants were asked to create a piece of artwork or writing that related to their interpretation of the theme. Twenty-five participants submitted works, the vast majority of which were variable prints.
  Work included:
• Resolute Understandings of Fragile Things – May thru Sept 2014
  Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA
  Inauguration of a new mural wall program organized and designed by Jennifer Anderson-Printz, using hand cut stencils printed on an overpass wall beside the museum and wheat-pasted photographs by various collaborators.
  Works included: a variety of digitally-manipulated photographs of the human body and its spacial relationship to nature, untitled.

• Once Upon A Feminist – Dec 2014
  A collaborative book project in which first-year students, the professor, and myself created linoleum block prints on the topic of feminist reinterpretations of Disney characters. An edition of 17 books was made; each collaborator created their own book with the images contained, and the final book was given to the Special Books Collection at the Hollins University Library.
  Work included:

• Exchange 81
  Roanoke, VA
  Work:
  Leading the Blind, intaglio print with hand watercoloring
• New Voice, Young Innovation – April 4 thru May 31, 2014
  Jacksonville Center for the Arts, Floyd, VA
  “The Center’s New Voices: Young Innovators Exhibition allows emerging artists to show a significant body of work (about 8 pieces from each exhibitor). The showcase allows young professionals to share their experiences and tips/techniques with the public and their peers, and to become inspired by other innovators. […] These artists have developed unique styles to give voice to their visions, using tools learned in school as well as in their professional and personal lives. The exhibit gives the community fresh inspiration and a view into the initiation of a professional artist’s growth and maturation.”
  Works:
• DSM-IV
  Camera Obscura, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA
  An installation examining the visceral sensation of being in the midst of an anxiety attack, utilizing a dense mobile of prints of red screaming faces and reaching hands suspended from the ceiling on fishing line. The viewer was invited to step into the camera obscura, a small room located in the foundation of an old building, and surround themselves with the visualizations of terror and helplessness, illuminated only by the pinhole of light.
• Revision, Revival, Ritual; Senior Majors Exhibition – May 12 thru June 8, 2015
  The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA
  “This exhibition featured the work of members of the Hollins University class of 2015 majoring in Studio Art: Catherine Gural, Kyrianne Lorenz, and Rose Wyatt. The exhibition was the final requirement for art students earning their Bachelor of Arts at Hollins, and was the capstone experience of their yearlong senior project.”
  Work:
  Leporcalia Tarot (installation), Sumi-E ink drawings and screen prints, suspended from wall with earth magnets, 2015

• You Think It’s __, But It’s Really __. – Aug 1 thru Sept 2, 2016
  Midway Gallery, Boston, MA
  Representing a wide variety of experiences, practices, and media, You Think It’s _____, But It’s Really _____, is a timely consideration of a main issue and question within disability studies, queer theory and socially engaged practices today: how do we find ourselves in the intersection of these identities together?
  Featuring: Xray Aims, Lauren Alindogan, Joe Balestraci, Darren Black, Carl Bowlby, Steven Cabral, Ken Diaz, Ariel Bassen Freiberg, Catherine Graffam, YoAhn Han, Madge of Honor, Heather Kapplow, LB Lee, Kyri Lorenz, Terrell Lowry, Chris Maliga, Daniel Lloyd-Miller, Ty Muto, Rose Ranauro, Sopheak Sam, Sasha Seaman, Cai Steele and Courtney White.

• And Draw! SECAC Conference Show – Oct 19 thru 27, 2016
  Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA
  Drawings from recent graduates of Hollins University’s Studio Art Program, 3rd Floor of the VAC Building for the SECAC conference.
  Works:
  A Sly Rabbit Will Have Three Openings To Its Den, watercolor, felt-tip pen, and colored pencil, 2016
  Foxes Grieve Over The Death Of Rabbits, watercolor, felt-tip pen, and colored pencil, 2016

• South Shore Comic Con, Vend and Demo – Dec 2016
  A day-long showcase for artists, writers and comic art appreciators. Meet comic artists and participate in art workshops and demos.
  How to Make Comics … Not Just Draw Them
  Kyri Lorenz and Mike Doherty. Demo on how to expand your comics beyond the traditional stapled together booklet.
  Fine Art Relief Printmaking – The Studio-less Martha Stewart Way: Demo on relief printmaking start-to-finish, focusing on techniques easily done in the home.

• Biennial of Non-Visible Art – May & June 2017
  “The Museum of Non-Visible Art is a Museum that exists to showcase and promote art that can be seen with the minds-eye or minds-ear only. It can be paintings, sculpture, heroic-sized work, public art, land art, even work too big for the planet, or work so small the naked eye can’t see it. It could be music, dance, theatre, film, installation, multi-media or paint-by-numbers, noise, silence, conceptual, or anything that can be described in a tweet. This is a real museum without walls and this biennial takes place all over the world. There is no fee to enter.”
  Work:
  “⟴ᐴᑨᙩ৳🝣🝳🝖🝮🜖⌳⍭◎◈◮◮⟱〆 Sic erat scriptum, thus it was written.”