Edward Lund, Fresno artist and curator, killed in crash during bike ride

Edward Lund, a Fresno artist who also was widely regarded as a curator, art installer and gallery technician, was killed Saturday when he crashed during a charity bike ride in Sonoma County.

According to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, the 54-year-old was participating in the Levi’s GranFondo charity ride when he lost control on a steep downhill stretch of mountain road north of Cazadero. It was the first fatal accident in the popular event’s seven-year history, the newspaper reported.

“It is with great sadness that I share with you the news that the love of my life, Edward Lund, died yesterday in a bicycle race,” his partner, Selena Mitchell, wrote Sunday on Facebook. “He was doing what he loved in the passionate, beautiful way that he did everything, and for that, I find some peace. He will be deeply missed by Grace (her daughter) and I, and by all of the many people he touched in his multiple communities.”

A trim and affably quiet man, Mr. Lund often could be found wearing a simple black T-shirt. A founding member of the Corridor 2122 art gallery, he was a fixture of Fresno’s gallery scene and was an expert art installer, juggling gigs at such venues as Fresno State, where he was gallery technician at the Phebe Conley Art Gallery, as well as the College of Arts and Humanities Dean’s Gallery in the Music Building and the Graduate Art Studios at the M Street Arts Complex in downtown Fresno; Fresno City College, as curator of the Art Space Gallery; and, in years past, as a significant contributor to the Fresno Art Museum.

At Fresno City College, Mr. Lund had just closed the Art Space Gallery’s biennial faculty art exhibit.

“He was quite simply the best art-installer I have ever worked with,” said Julia Bradshaw, a former member of Corridor 2122, in a tribute posted Sunday on Facebook.

Mr. Lund was known for the precision and care with which he had presented the art in shows he curated or installed – not just from a technical standpoint in terms of the works being perfectly arranged, but also in the sense of how he used a space in terms of flow and narrative. Everything from color choices for the walls, typography and layout were all coordinated in a way that suggested smooth, crisp professionalism.

Martin Valencia, chair of the Department of Art and Design at Fresno State, said Mr. Lund had worked at the university for six years. “We at Fresno State are saddened by this tragic loss of our dear friend and colleague,” Valencia said in a statement. “Edward was a talented and enthusiastic individual who put his unique touch into the exhibits at university venues.”

Quinn Gomez-Heitzberg, 40, met Mr. Lund when they were art students at Fresno State. Mr. Lund’s father taught at the university and Gomez-Heitzberg’s parents took classes from him.

“We were this second generation of art people at Fresno State,” Gomez-Heitzberg said. “We kind of bonded over that. We both felt a lot of connection to that place.”

After graduating, Mr. Lund and Gomez-Heitzberg worked for several years together at the Fresno Art Museum and later helped found Corridor 2122. Gomez-Heitzberg said Mr. Lund “took on the lion’s share” to build the gallery before it opened in 2004.

Gomez-Heitzberg described Mr. Lund as friendly and generous, always quick to share his time and skills. He was most enthusiastic about art, dance and cycling.

Stepping into Mr. Lund’s apartment in Fresno was like being in a bike museum. Gomez-Heitzberg said Mr. Lund worked on at least a dozen bikes at any time, ranging from early 1900s models to new, carbon-fiber road bikes, that he repaired for others or restored for himself.

“Riding bikes was something he absolutely loved and was unbelievably good at,” Gomez-Heitzberg said. “He had a dancer’s body and a dancer’s coordination, and he brought that to cycling.”

This story was originally published October 4, 2015 at 1:31 PM with the headline "Edward Lund, Fresno artist and curator, killed in crash during bike ride."