Lori Austin Gallery features works by Bay Area and national artists
as well as a premiere collection of contemporary Shona sculpture from Zimbabwe.

Located in The Barlow marketplace of Sebastopol, the gallery is committed
to providing world class art in a unique and comfortable environment.
We are dedicated to serving our clients as well as our artists.

For more information or to join our mailing list please call us at 707.329.6725.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Wosene Worke Kosrof

Lori Austin has had the honor of representing internationally acclaimed artist Wosene Worke Kosrof for 25 years. Over the past four decades, Wosene (his professional name) has created an internationally recognized artistic signature in his work by being the first contemporary Ethiopian-born artist to use the script forms -- fiedel -- of his native Amharic as a core element in his paintings and sculptures. This recognizable 'signature' emerges from the way he elongates, distorts, dissects and reassembles Amharic symbols -- not as literal words -- but as images that speak for themselves in a visual language accessible to international audiences. Jazz improvisations underlie his compositions, animating them with rhythmic movements and emboldening his masterful use of color.

Shona Sculpture

Shona sculpture from Zimbabwe is one of the most significant art forms to come out of Africa in the 20th century. The Shona people have been hand carving stone into works of art for nearly a thousand years. Historical examples can be found in the Great Zimbabwe ruins. Even though the art form is ancient, the style has continually evolved. The contemporary, evocative forms have captivated collectors around the world. The themes these sculptures portray represent esteemed values in the Shona culture of family, love, life and nature.

Chris Henry

Chris Henry's paintings tell a story; they are mysterious, challenging and as diverse as the collectors who own them. He can be trusted to always offer art that is unique, textural and intriguing. Bringing a well-seasoned life experience to the easel, he knows that paint is a form of language and he uses this language to speak of beauty, peace and transcendence. And, understanding that the work will also have its own voice, he is able to surrender to that voice. There is a sensitivity and reverence to honoring this creative process and the results are compelling, color-drenched compositions with delicious surface texture and lasting allure. Born and raised in New Jersey. Henry graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, PA in l981. He has exhibited in many solo and group shows in California, and his paintings can be found in private and public collections throughout the US and internationally.

Tricia Rissmann

Tricia Rissmann is a contemporary abstract artist. She employs the power of color and texture allowing images to emerge and reveal themselves in her paintings that are full of unexpected balance, depth and harmony. Rissmann was born in San Francisco and currently lives and works in Sonoma, California. She began painting at a very early age when she traveled with her grandmother to Europe. The old doors with years of paint inspired Tricia toward her artistic process. She attended the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design and enjoyed a successful career as a designer only to return full time to her greatest passion, painting. She has been collected, published and exhibited Internationally.

Lia Bonagura-Transue

Lia Bonagura-Transue was born and raised in New York City to artist parents. She attended the now famous High School of Music & Art in NYC, studied Design at the California Institute of the Arts, and completed her formal education in Illustration and Painting at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. After a ten year reign as founding director of the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Lia found her way back to her true passion of painting. Connecting with her deep design and illustrative roots while painting with oil on canvas, Lia infuses highly personal yet commonly shared content with carefully composed, balanced, but often stark graphic representations of our shared reality. Painting about our mutual experiences in this manner exposes the viewer to a deeper, emotionally charged & individualized message.

Salatino-Gandolfo Glass

Jean Salatino and Steven Gandolfo are a husband and wife team working together to create unique hand-carved glass vessels. Their work explores form, texture, light, and color. Salatino’s diamond-carving draws inspiration from nature, with forms suggestive of leaves, seedpods, shells and flowers. Each piece is meticulously carved away, revealing the brilliance of the glass and celebrating its relationship to light. Gandolfo’s sand-carved pieces lean more toward the graphic, exploring two-dimensional designs on three-dimensional forms. Salatino has also worked and studied at the Pilchuck Glass School.

Jill James

Central California artist Jill James received her degree in Graphic Design from San Jose State University in 1981 while minoring in Fine Art. She is drawn to the sacred as well as the industrial elements in our world, expressing these juxtapositions by merging the primitive with the contemporary, the smooth with the rough, the machine-made with the hand-made. She creates modern day treasures with concrete and mortar, marble dust, resin, metal, glass and wire. It's these contrasts and these materials, along with her background in graphic design, that guide and influence most of her work. Her vessels and vessel-like forms are intended for ceremonial use, to protect something special or purely to enjoy their unique form.

Zulu Wire Baskets

These extraordinary baskets are woven from coated wire by the Zulu people of South Africa. The Zulu have long been associated with their skill and artistry in fashioning baskets from the native plants and grasses of their homeland as well as for their intricate and culturally important beadwork. These are among some of the finest examples available of this magnificent art form.