About

Kris Lanzer is a visual artist working and living in New Hampshire. During college, she studied in Sweden for a year. While traveling the region with the Scandinavian Seminar, she saw an exhibition of work by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. His use of the diagonal line influenced her dynamic spacious landscape paintings.
After college, Lanzer worked at a bakery. She liked working with her hands there and at home— redefining interior spaces, as well as building a garden. It wasn’t until the mid 90’s, at grad school, that artists Judy Pfaff and Richard Tuttle redefined art for her. Lanzer abandoned painting and its illusionistic space. She had a new perception of working with space and light and architecture. Creating tactile forms or making an experiential event in a space had a profound impact. That paired with the nuance of impermanence sparked inquiry that carried her artwork well into her career after grad school.
Since returning to her home in NH, Lanzer has built several temporary site-specific art installations. At times she’s worked outside of the gallery structure, opting for alternative and public spaces. A poignant moment appeared to Lanzer when impermanence became spiritual after she suffered several losses in a short period of time. Today, themes of transformation, resilience, and discovery, ground her art and her person. Nature has become her muse.
Lanzer was an art educator for the federal education program Upward Bound and for the Dover NH Public Schools. She was twice awarded Fellowships at Vermont Studio Center, and won the Mary Beasson Bishop and Francis Sumner Merritt Fellowship at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine. Her mixed media sculptures and art installations have been exhibited in New York City, Portland Maine, Ogunquit Maine, and throughout Seacoast New Hampshire. Lanzer was featured in the Maine Arts Journal—summer 2022 and winter 2023 quarterlies, and was granted a printmaking residency at the Art Center in Dover, NH. In the next couple of years, she’ll continue with her paper log project, exhibit her series of punch needle napkin drawings, and work on a book about the “Garden of Sustenance”.