Lillian Orlowsky was an American painter, curator, designer, and educator, recognized as a member of the American Modernist vanguard. Her art education began at the Alliance Art School in NYC and continued at the National Academy of Design, the American Artist School, and the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Art during the WPA era. Studying under Hofmann, Orlowsky's approach to painting transformed as she embraced the idea of interpreting nature on the picture plane rather than merely imitating it. She quickly became one of Hofmann’s star pupils, adopting his methods while maintaining her personal vision. Her work features active and broad brushstrokes, creating exuberant plays on the more stolid and masculine abstractions of the time, with a keen attention to color, unafraid to embrace light pastels and bright hues.

Orlowsky's paintings were included in the 1939 World's Fair in New York, and over the next 20 years, she participated in numerous group shows. Her 70-year career is linked to major artistic movements in New York and Provincetown: the WPA, Modernism, the abstract galleries of the ’50s, the avant-garde of the Lower East Side, the Days Lumberyard Studios, and her association with Hofmann and Provincetown.

Lillian’s work was exhibited in Boston, New York, Provincetown, and internationally in Copenhagen, Prague, and Nimes, France. Her paintings are part of major public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, and the Chrysler Museum of Art.