Artist to Know: Lois Harada, Inside Art with Michael Rose
Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Michael Rose, Art Contributor
In a world dominated by emails, texts, and omnipresent memes, words are embedded in visual culture. Printmaker Lois Harada has made text an integral part of her aesthetic with great success. Well-exhibited and an integral member of the local art community, Harada’s art plumbs the persuasive and narrative possibilities of language in ways that are entirely her own.
Originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, Lois Harada came to Providence to study at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she earned her BFA in Printmaking. When asked why she stayed, Harada cites early opportunities she received at AS220, and says, “The city has been a great home to me ever since, with a welcoming community of artists of all kinds.”
Since 2011, Harada has served as Lead Designer and Social Stationary Manager for DWRI Letterpress, a local company maintaining the tradition of commercial letterpress printing. The technology that Harada utilizes in her day job often bleeds into her fine art work, blurring the boundaries between these two fields and encouraging viewers to appreciate the craft of printmaking in a richer way.
Harada’s artwork is often political and employs the power of text to navigate histories, interrogate ideas, and frame response to issues. Some of her most potent work centers on the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War. Harada’s grandmother experienced internment first-hand, being forcibly relocated from her home in California to Poston, Arizona, from 1942 - 1945. In prints featuring sparingly little text, Harada quotes from the government posters that presaged this period. One, titled Notice, bears that word alone. Another features the bold and capitalized phrase “I Am An American”, which evokes Dorothea Lange’s photograph of a Japanese American grocery store in Oakland, CA.
Lange’s photograph is one of the most poignant in American art and Harada’s print carries an equal emotional weight. In sharing her own family’s story in these works, Harada sheds light upon a sad and infamous episode in the nation’s history.
In an ambitious show mounted recently at AS220, where she has been an active printshop member and instructor, Harada exhibited work that dealt with contemporary issues. The multi-part exhibition featured several works. A wall-covering installation titled Tally hauntingly charted the pandemic’s death toll in Rhode Island. A collection of circular text prints captured some of the feelings the pandemic triggered, including anxiety. During the exhibition, gallery windows were papered with posters that read “Stop Asian Hate”, a response to the murders of 8 people in the Atlanta-area on March 16, 2021.
Alongside these works, Harada exhibited a suite of prints based on nautical flags, exploring the directness of symbology in an era defined by fake news and doublespeak. Through September 25, these colorful prints are featured in the group exhibition Voyage, on view at Cade Tompkins Projects on the East Side.
One of Harada’s ongoing projects has been her artistic advocacy for changing the name of Victory Day in Rhode Island. This year, Harada produced letterpress bookmarks reading #RenameVictoryDay to promote the effort. In past years, she has created posters with potential alternate names for the holiday, including Ocean State Day. In 2020, Harada made waves when she had a banner emblazoned with #RenameVictoryDay flown over East Matunuck Beach. These initiatives meld her printmaking and activism, leveraging historical uses of letterpress in present-day advocacy.
When asked if she feels her art has had an impact, Harada says her projects have stoked good conversations but concedes the necessity for patience. She says, “We get so used to making work for deadlines or exhibitions but it really is a different mental process to watch something grow and change over the course of years.”
In addition to her studio production, Harada has served on the Board of New Urban Arts since 2014. She has also volunteered as an artist mentor for the non-profit, which supports area high school students. Since 2019, Harada has been Board Chair of the organization, which recognized her with their Sandra Olson Award for Volunteer Service.
When asked what is next for her, Harada says, “I'm looking forward to a little cool down period. It's been tricky to think about making new work as the COVID numbers rise and the anxious feelings I had at the start of the pandemic resurface.” Despite feelings of uncertainty, she is already planning for a residency at Anderson Ranch in Colorado next year.
With artwork that is often unflinching and direct, Lois Harada has established herself as an artist with a significant voice. Through her text-based prints she speaks in no uncertain terms about issues of importance and makes a powerful moral case for societal change. There is not much more one can ask great art to do.
Learn more about Lois Harada at her website www.loisharada.com.