JAI Featured Member/December 2025
Lucinda Luuvas
JAI Featured Member
Lucinda Luuvas
December 2025
JAI Featured Member
Lucinda Luuvas
December 2025
Lucinda Luvaas
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I am a multimedia artist working in fine art, video and sound.
I’ve always been a passionate nature lover. My imagery has been influenced by early sensations relating to the natural world. I studied at NYU, the New York Studio School, the New School for Social Research and the Art Student’s League.
Having always an adventurous, inquisitive spirit, I ventured to Europe where I lived for a couple of years. It was there that I began creating reverse glass paintings, a technique I learned from a sailor on a Yugoslav freighter. At that time I began to take art seriously.
Later I moved back to NYC and worked as a full time muralist. I was the featured muralist on Good Morning America, that examined murals around the country. The murals were also featured on CBS German TV, and PBS/NYC. I was the director of the mural group for AND/Artists for Nuclear Disarmament working with twenty other artists on the theme of nuclear proliferation and the threat of war. These works were commissioned by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, NYC.
I started showing my work regularly in the 1980s on the Lower East Side, NYC and beyond.
In the ’90s I became interested in creating multimedia installations which combined sound, video, photography and fine art. I had numerous solo exhibitions of these works both in the U.S.A. and Canada. I’ve lived in England, Spain, Alaska, NYC, California–both northern and southern and now make my home in Los Angeles, CA where I work full time on my art and short films.
Dusk, oil pigment sticks on Arches archival oil paper, 30″ x 22″
Farewell, oils and oil pigment sticks on Arches archival oil paper, 40″ x 30″
Appearance, oils and oil pigment sticks on wood panel, 24″ x 30″
Afternoon Stroll, oils and oil pigment sticks on arches archival oil paper, 30″ x 40″
Lucinda Luvaas Movie Clips | 2025
A ONE MINUTE MOVIE
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I’ve always been engaged in music, film and art. As a child I wrote many songs, worked with a high school friend on narrative movies and eventually studied fine art. I see all art disciplines as having much in common and much to share even though engaging in the process of creating in each form is quite different. This is what makes me feel satisfied: to work in these different forms, to experience the uniqueness of each and at times to bring them all together.
My films are a total immersion in fine art, sound and movement. There is no other art form like film. It’s so exciting to see scenes that you build come to life. I’ve never taken a class in filmmaking. I came to it on my own with a project that had paintings and voices. I still have so much to learn and learning is the spice of life.
As a little girl I would wander into the pine forest near my home. One day I came upon a clearing. In the center was a statue of a man holding up the earth. The sculpture was made out of stone – the color gray. Every day I went to see “my statue,” and would talk to it sitting there in the clearing. One day I told my mother the secret about my discovery and she came with me to the clearing. She told me that the man holding the earth was Atlas and that it was probably associated with a grave site. Somehow the explanation disappointed me: a clarification when what I really was looking for was the magic of the scene… something unknowable and mysterious.
I’ve carried that experience with me my whole life. My art is very much an expression of the awe and mystery I felt when I saw Atlas for the first time and the forest being a place of magic, a place that can transport one to another level of consciousness. As a young woman I went to Florence, Rome, Arles, Paris and other cities seeing art that inspired me: the David, Kathe Kollwitz, Van Gogh – I would say mostly those male and female artists who displayed great power in their work, or at least did so for me. Francis Bacon was a real inspiration as was Frida Kahlo. What they all had in common was the their own unique passion and power.
My artwork and short films revolve around symbolic naturalism. There is an oneric quality to my paintings and films. There are times that I can’t even be totally sure of what something means and that’s as it should be when you are engaged with your unconscious mind.
My current body of work combines painting and short film. It’s called: Regarding Nature. The work deals with two main themes: one is to portray a world in harmony with nature and the other is to show the powerful forces of nature. There is a contrast between a peaceful, bucolic kingdom where animals and humans live as one and a world where the sheer power of nature shows us how small and humble we really are. I’ve always been interested in creating dramatic narratives, posing questions, provoking the viewer, depicting scenes both of serenity and suspense. This is certainly because my first love was drama, theater and film. I moved away from the performing arts to become a visual artist, but I never said goodbye to my dramatic gifts. In fact, I still produce short films, both fictional and documentary.
Thank you!
About JAI
Jewish Artists Initiative (JAI) is a Southern California organization committed to supporting Jewish artists and arts professionals. JAI aspires to be an agent of transformative change by organizing provocative exhibitions and thoughtful programs promoting diverse dialogue about Jewish identity and experiences. Founded in 2004, JAI remains committed to fostering Jewish culture in our community and beyond.
MISSION AND HISTORY
JAI was conceived by the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles in 2004. It was originally in partnership with the University of Southern California Casden Institute and the USC Roski School of Art and Design. For many years we have been under the fiscal sponsorship of the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity. Members include primarily artists, as well as curators and art historians based in Southern California. The artists go through a jurying process to be admitted as members.
We have collaborated with a great range of Southern California institutions including American Jewish University, Hebrew Union College, UCLA Hillel and USC Hillel as well as a variety of art galleries and public spaces. We have also worked and exhibited in institutions in other parts of the United States and Israel such as the Jewish Art Salon, Hebrew Union College, New York, the New York UJA and the Jerusalem Biennale.
JAI BOARD MEMBERS
Bill Aron, Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik, Anne Hromadka Greenwald, Gilah Yelin Hirsch
Sagi Refael, Doni Silver Simons, Hillel Smith, Ruth Weisberg, Cathy Weiss
How to Become a JAI Member: JAI welcomes applications for membership from artists and arts professionals. For how to apply and to view the selection criteria click on Join JAI in the navigation links at the top or bottom of any page. Questions: contact JAI at admin@jaisocal.org