James Lee Hansen
Opening Reception Thursday, May 4, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
For the month of May, Russo Lee Gallery presents A Survey by James Lee Hansen. A selection of thirteen bronze sculptures, ranging broadly in size and dating from 1982 – 2010, is part of this exhibition. As a celebrated artist, Hansen pioneered the lost wax process of bronze casting on the West Coast. From small studies to monumental works of public art, Hansen’s sculptures relate to his ideas about human origins, existence, identity, and reality.
James Lee Hansen is from Tacoma Washington, and he graduated from the Portland Art Museum School in 1950 (now Pacific Northwest College of Art). He taught at the University of Oregon, The University of California, Berkeley and at Portland State University. Over the years he received many awards for his monumental bronzes, including the National Annual First Purchase Prize, San Francisco Art Association, and the Northwest Annual Norman Davis Purchase Prize, Seattle Art Museum. Exhibiting nationally, Hansen has shown his work at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Denver Art Museum; San Francisco Art Museum; and The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Selected public and corporate collections include: The Portland Art Museum, where Hansen was given a major Retrospective Exhibition, City of Portland Tri-Met Transit Mall, and The University of Oregon.