Lundin Kudo
Retrospective

Centerpiece display, exhibit opening night

Dec. 7-15, 2006
Historic Martin County
Court House Cultural Center
Stuart, Florida
Follow the link for more information about the artist.

 

“She was so special in her ability to take the ordinary and make it so vibrant.”

Lundin Kudo passed away April 16, 2006 — Easter Sunday — after open-heart surgery and a lengthy hospital stay. Her family lost a loving wife and mother, and many others lost a wonderful friend. The world has "lost an artist who inspired friends and admirers with her courage and her sculpture," as the Palm Beach Post said in its obituary. Her work will be a continuing legacy and inspiration for many, and this site will continue to present a wide selection of Lundin's work.

Lundin Kudo was an artist in Stuart, Florida, best known for clay sculpture but also a gifted painter. Kudo's work is at once realistic and whimsical. Her wall sculptures of people and Florida scenes are in several public buildings and numerous private homes in Florida, and her free-standing, usually life-size sculptures of people, especially women, are in numerous private collections both in the United States and internationally. Her sculptures of pears, peppers, honeybell oranges, apples, mangoes and other fruits and vegetables and Japanese koi fish are in homes and offices across the United States and have been featured at numerous galleries. She received a 2001 Niche Award for her Bosc pear series and has been featured on the cover of Fine Art Ceramics magazine

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From the Stuart News (April 19, 2006):
By Gabriel Margasak

STUART — Lundin Kudo turned ordinary objects into sculptures that touched a community.

The Treasure Coast artist's clay works of fruit and Koi fish adorned galleries and private collections throughout Florida and the world, although she was admired just as much for her giving, charitable nature.

Kudo died Sunday of complications from congestive heart failure. She was 58.

"She was so special in her ability to take the ordinary and make it so vibrant," family friend and Fort Pierce resident Carolyn Smith said. "She just took all of the things around her and made us look at them again."

There were sculptures of grapes and pieces of art that sold for thousands of dollars.

Kudo's sculpture of travelers with their bags, seemingly emerging from an expansive wall, is a permanent fixture at Palm Beach International Airport.

"She was just such a wonderful person and she was such a gifted artist," said Diana Loudakis, a friend and art teacher at St. Michael's Independent School in Stuart.

Along with leaving her mark in the art community, Kudo owned the Koi restaurant and gallery on East Ocean Boulevard with her husband, Mutsuo.

The restaurant was set to reopen after recovering from hurricane damage.

Kudo was also well recognized for her contributions to children.

"She was such a generous person. She'd be the first person to volunteer to do something to help other people," Smith said. "She always was the first one to donate something to Hibiscus (Children's Center)."

Kudo studied art in the studio of Miguel Ballesta, in Seville, Spain, from 1959 to 1960, and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Michigan in 1969.

She came to South Florida in 1972.

In Stuart, Kudo was a morning person who loved the beach and went for a swim many a morning with neighbor Nora Wiser.

"It was her Florida, her ocean, her sky, her sun," Wiser said. "I know she drew a lot of inspiration from nature."

Much of that inspiration went into some of her favorite sculptures: bright shining apples.

"I'll never look at another apple without thinking of Lundin," Wiser said.

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From the Palm Beach Post (April 18, 2006):
“‘She had so many ideas and things she wanted to do,’ said Mae Slaton, a longtime friend and potter. . . .

“Lundin once said that a lot of her figures, including people and abundant fruit, were shaped just like herself. The faces of her women figures had lines of character, and her bathers were ‘just regular people, not babes, you see at the beach.’

“‘I have Lundin in a bathing suit sitting right in my living room,’ said Slaton. ‘And her pears are very sexy.’

“And popular. One iridescent beauty was on the October 2002 cover of Fine Art Ceramics magazine. Earlier this year, Lundin had a successful show at the Elliott Museum in Stuart, and she and her husband planned to reopen their Stuart restaurant, Koi, which they closed after hurricanes Frances and Jeanne.

 

“‘The hurricanes actually inspired her to do these wonderful broken branches with fruit hanging off of them,’ Slaton said.”

“After the Storm” (2006)

Read more about Lundin Kudo