She was 66. From the Oregonian’s D.K. Row:
Simply put: No one in the current art world championed local and Northwest artists as passionately and consistently as Russo, whose 23 year-old gallery is a de facto museum for regional artists, past and present: Lucinda Parker, Jay Backstrand, Fay Jones, and the estates of Louis Bunce, Robert Colescott, Carl Morris and her uncle, Michele Russo, among others, are represented by the Russo business.
But Russo was more than the seemingly shy yet quietly tough art dealer on Northwest 21st Avenue. She was an embodiment of a specific mid-century lineage whose spirit and heritage continues but whose active champions are now few.
“We will never see this kind of lifelong commitment again,” says Bruce Guenther, a longtime Russo friend and chief curator at the Portland Art Museum. “Laura was literally raised in this town. Her knowledge of the history of the cultural scene here, and her connections — social and personal — with the artists of this city can’t be matched.” (more)
Row noted that Martha Lee, manager of the Laura Russo
Gallery, will continue it. Its strengths have always been its painters. Highlights include:
Betty Merken, Torque, monotype, 2009
Lucinda Parker, Outlook, December 1, 2007 gouache on paper 2007
Fay Jones, Forget, Forgotten, acrylic/paper, 2009
Gregory Grenon Me and My Ethereal Dress oil on plexiglas 2008
Michael Brophy, Silence 2, oil/canvas 2009
Francis Celentano Cirque Variation 11 acrylic on canvas 2006
Jan Reaves Dutchman’s Britches mixed media on flax paper 2009
I am stunned and saddened. Although I knew Laura had been ill, I couldn’t imagine we would actually lose her. Laura was one of the original representatives of Northwest artists’ work…a representative, supporter, patron. She will be deeply missed.