Artist Laura Moriarty

Laura Moriarty- Artist Statement

I began painting with pigmented beeswax in 1997, and became fascinated with the range of things that I could get to happen by heating and cooling the wax. Gradually, the process of heating and cooling evolved into a way for me to compare human and geologic time, and think about how humans impact the earth. Rocks can tell stories if you know how to read their bands of strata. In my own comparatively smaller way, I consider painting similarly. Using the process of making as a tool for discovery, the wax medium becomes fodder for a re-visioning of natural history, where I get to make all the specimens in the museum. My current work aims to create a glossary of geologic processes - as if each piece were a page from a reference book, illustrating cross-sections of imagined terrains. These paintings are built up thickly around embedded sculptural elements, and then excavated and eroded to reveal what is buried. Like rockfaces or archaeological sites, their layers reveal the history of their making and can be read like the lines of a story.

Resume

Exhibitions

Solo:

2009 Upheaval. ArtSpace, New Haven, CT
2009 Ice Ribbons. Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY
2008 Scientific Wild Ass Guess. Kingston Museum of Contemporary Art, Kingston, NY
2004 Gemboree. Collaborative Concepts, Beacon, NY
2002 Painting in the Language of Geology. Ceres’ Project Room, New York, NY
2002 Flatness. Haggerty Art Gallery, The University of Dallas, Irving, TX
2001 Going through Phases. Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, IL

Group:

2010 Field Notes: Revisions. Ruffin Gallery, MacIntire Department of Art, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
2010 Ucross: Twenty-Seven Years of Artist Residencies, The Nicolaysen Art Museum & Discovery Center, Casper, WY. Curated by Lisa
Katchadoorian
2010 ArtPrize. Women’s City Club Exhibition Center, Grand Rapids, MI. Curated by Michele Bosak.
2010 Water, water, every where. The Beacon Institute of Rivers and Estuaries, Beacon, NY
2010 Geologic Time. Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2010 Luminous Layers. Curated by Linda Womack, Lakewood Center for the Arts, Lake Oswego, OR
2009 Ecotones and Transition Zones. Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz.
2009 Graphica Creativa. Jyväskylä Art Museum, Jyväskylä, Finland. Curated by Jukka Partenen.
2009 New Prints Spring 2009. Selected by Polly Apfelbaum, International Print Center New York
2009 Castle Hill @ PAAM: 38 Years of Inspiration. Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA
2008 Hyper-Nature. Spaces, Cleveland, OH
The Medium is the Message. Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz. Curated by Denise Markonish.
2008 Aldrich Undercover. The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT
2007 Natural Selection. The Art & Culture Program at Albany International Airport, Albany, NY.
2007 The Uncanny Valley. Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz.
2007 X-07: Directors Choice. Cain Shulte Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2006 Another place. Curated by Eleanor Eichenbaum. NurtureArt @ Supreme Trading, Brooklyn, NY
2005 Radius. The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield, CT.
2005 Artistic Fragments: Art 2005. Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY.
2005 Encaustic Works 2005. Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz.
2004 Shelters: The Byrdcliffe Outdoor Exhibition 2004. Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, Woodstock, NY.
2003 Unearthed. The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Philadelphia, PA
2001 Breaking the Rules: Art 2001. Katonah Museum of Art, NY. Selected by Eugenie Tsai.
1999 Intersection: Mariana Depetris & Laura Moriarty. Roswell Visual Art Center, Roswell, GA
1996 Material Studies. Gallery 4C, New York, NY. Curated by Austin Thomas.
1995 Working Affinities. Newhouse Gallery, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY.
1995 Commissioned Installations. Castellani Art Museum, Niagara University, NY.

Awards

2009 NYFA MARK 09 Professional Practice for Visual Artists
2008 Studio Fellowship, Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY
2007 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
2005 Radius Award, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and Ridgefield Guild of Artists
2004 Artist in Residence, Collaborative Concepts, Beacon, NY
2004 Frans Masereel Center Artist in Residence, Kasterlee, Belgium
2002 Artists Talk on Art Curator’s Choice Award
2000 Frans Masereel Center Artist in Residence, Kasterlee, Belgium
2000 Craft Alliance of New York State Career Development Grant
1999 VCCA International Exchange Fellowship, Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus, Schwandorf, Germany
1998 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Residency, Sweet Briar, VA
1997 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
1996 Ucross Foundation Residency, Clearmont, WY

Collections

Jyväskylä Art Museum Holvi, Finland
The Progressive Art Collection, Cleveland, OH
The New York Public Library, New York, NY
The Royal Museum of Art, Antwerp, Belgium
The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY
The University of Dallas, Irving, TX
Emory & Henry College, Emory, VA
Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus Archives, Munich, Germany
The Flemish Ministry of Culture, Kasterlee, Belgium
Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle, WA

Bibliography

Stockton Moore, Cindy; ‘Mining Color: Laura Moriarty’s Encaustic Works’, Ducts.org, Issue 25 Summer 2010
Fisher, Marisa D.; ‘Gallrey features earthy new collection’. Arizona Daily Wildcat, 2/17/10
Ferrell, Samantha: ‘Artistic Range: Laura Moriarty at Conrad Wilde Gallery’. Tucson Weekly, 2/7/10
Musso, Anthony P.: ‘Beacon exhibit sheds new light on water’. Poughkeepsie Journal, 3/17/10
Calcavecchio, Donna; Ecotones and Transition Zones, at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art. Art Highlights, Roll Magazine: Creative Living in the Hudson Valley, August, 2009
North, Melora B.; ‘Cast of Castle Hill notables display their art in anniversary show at Provincetown Art Associaiton and Museum’. The Provincetown Banner, 3/11/2009
Litt, Steven; ‘Spaces exhibition revolves around nightmarish sculptures that look like biology experiments.’ The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, OH, 11/27/08
Utter, Douglas Max; ‘Against Nature: Artists at Spaces Rebuild Reality’ The Cleveland Free Times, 12/13/08
Edwards, Nicole; ‘Artists expand our ideas of terrestrial landscape and present new forms of representation’. Positively Cleveland.com, 10/10/08
‘Globe North best bets; On the Edge’, The Boston Globe, Boston, MA, June 5, 2008
Wilson, Beth E.; ‘Portfolio: Laura Moriarty’, Chronogram Magazine, NY, May 2008
Wasserman, Nadine; ‘Species Pieces: Natural Selection at Albany International Airport Gallery’, Metroland, Albany, NY, January 2007
Kane, Tim; ‘Selection’ displays link of art, nature. The Times Union, Albany, NY April 1, 2007
Bjornland, Karen; ‘Wild kingdom’ at airport’s gallery enables visitors to travel back in time. The Daily Gazette, Albany, NY 3/31/07
Lombardi, D. Dominick; ‘Waxworks” NYArts Magazine, Jan/Feb 2007
Falkenstein, Michelle; ‘Creating Unusual Paints, and Teaching Artists How to Use Them’, The New York Times, 12/31/2006
Smart, Paul; ‘Foresighted Fossils: Laura Moriarty’s art plays with plate tectonics as metaphor’, Art alm@nac, Ulster Publishing, 6/16/05
Lombardi, Dominick; ‘Does inspiration lurk in the kitchen?’ The New York Times, 1/4/05
Brickman, David; ‘Laura Moriarty: Compressionistic Paintings’. Metroland, Albany,. NY, 9/16/2004
Smart, Paul; ‘A Beacon for artists’. Woodstock Times, Woodstock, NY, 5/6/04
Rice, Robin; ‘Down to Earth’. Citypaper, Philadelphia, PA, 10/16/03
Mitchell, Annette; Images In Wax: Contemporary Encaustic. Art New England, Oct/Nov 2001
Lombardi, D. Dominick; Exploring the Gamut of Contemporary Art, The New York Times, 6/17/01
Gardner, Wendy; Moriarty’s ‘Aerial View’ Evokes Longings for Times Past, Tribeca Trib, NY, 11/98
ice, Robin; WSW XX Years: A Retrospective, New Art Examiner, Chicago, IL, 10/94, and Hand Papermaking Magazine, Baltimore, MD, winter 1994



	Laura Moriarty- Artist Statement I began painting with pigmented beeswax in 1997, and became fascinated with the range of things that I could get to happen by heating and cooling the wax. Gradually, the process of heating and cooling evolved into a way for me to compare human and geologic time, and think about how humans impact the earth. Rocks can tell stories if you know how to read their bands of strata. In my own comparatively smaller way, I consider painting similarly. Using the process of making as a tool for discovery, the wax medium becomes fodder for a re-visioning of natural history, where I get to make all the specimens in the museum. My current work aims to create a glossary of geologic processes - as if each piece were a page from a reference book, illustrating cross-sections of imagined terrains. These paintings are built up thickly around embedded sculptural elements, and then excavated and eroded to reveal what is buried. Like rockfaces or archaeological sites, their layers reveal the history of their making and can be read like the lines of a story. Resume Exhibitions Solo: 2009 Upheaval. ArtSpace, New Haven, CT 2009 Ice Ribbons. Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY 2008 Scientific Wild Ass Guess. Kingston Museum of Contemporary Art, Kingston, NY 2004 Gemboree. Collaborative Concepts, Beacon, NY 2002 Painting in the Language of Geology. Ceres’ Project Room, New York, NY 2002 Flatness. Haggerty Art Gallery, The University of Dallas, Irving, TX 2001 Going through Phases. Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, IL Group: 2010 Field Notes: Revisions. Ruffin Gallery, MacIntire Department of Art, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 2010 Ucross: Twenty-Seven Years of Artist Residencies, The Nicolaysen Art Museum & Discovery Center, Casper, WY. Curated by Lisa Katchadoorian 2010 ArtPrize. Women’s City Club Exhibition Center, Grand Rapids, MI. Curated by Michele Bosak. 2010 Water, water, every where. The Beacon Institute of Rivers and Estuaries, Beacon, NY 2010 Geologic Time. Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ 2010 Luminous Layers. Curated by Linda Womack, Lakewood Center for the Arts, Lake Oswego, OR 2009 Ecotones and Transition Zones. Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz. 2009 Graphica Creativa. Jyväskylä Art Museum, Jyväskylä, Finland. Curated by Jukka Partenen. 2009 New Prints Spring 2009. Selected by Polly Apfelbaum, International Print Center New York 2009 Castle Hill @ PAAM: 38 Years of Inspiration. Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA 2008 Hyper-Nature. Spaces, Cleveland, OH The Medium is the Message. Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz. Curated by Denise Markonish. 2008 Aldrich Undercover. The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT 2007 Natural Selection. The Art & Culture Program at Albany International Airport, Albany, NY. 2007 The Uncanny Valley. Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz. 2007 X-07: Directors Choice. Cain Shulte Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2006 Another place. Curated by Eleanor Eichenbaum. NurtureArt @ Supreme Trading, Brooklyn, NY 2005 Radius. The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield, CT. 2005 Artistic Fragments: Art 2005. Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY. 2005 Encaustic Works 2005. Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz. 2004 Shelters: The Byrdcliffe Outdoor Exhibition 2004. Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, Woodstock, NY. 2003 Unearthed. The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Philadelphia, PA 2001 Breaking the Rules: Art 2001. Katonah Museum of Art, NY. Selected by Eugenie Tsai. 1999 Intersection: Mariana Depetris & Laura Moriarty. Roswell Visual Art Center, Roswell, GA 1996 Material Studies. Gallery 4C, New York, NY. Curated by Austin Thomas. 1995 Working Affinities. Newhouse Gallery, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY. 1995 Commissioned Installations. Castellani Art Museum, Niagara University, NY. Awards 2009 NYFA MARK 09 Professional Practice for Visual Artists 2008 Studio Fellowship, Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY 2007 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant 2005 Radius Award, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and Ridgefield Guild of Artists 2004 Artist in Residence, Collaborative Concepts, Beacon, NY 2004 Frans Masereel Center Artist in Residence, Kasterlee, Belgium 2002 Artists Talk on Art Curator’s Choice Award 2000 Frans Masereel Center Artist in Residence, Kasterlee, Belgium 2000 Craft Alliance of New York State Career Development Grant 1999 VCCA International Exchange Fellowship, Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus, Schwandorf, Germany 1998 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Residency, Sweet Briar, VA 1997 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant 1996 Ucross Foundation Residency, Clearmont, WY Collections Jyväskylä Art Museum Holvi, Finland The Progressive Art Collection, Cleveland, OH The New York Public Library, New York, NY The Royal Museum of Art, Antwerp, Belgium The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY The University of Dallas, Irving, TX Emory & Henry College, Emory, VA Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus Archives, Munich, Germany The Flemish Ministry of Culture, Kasterlee, Belgium Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle, WA Bibliography Stockton Moore, Cindy; ‘Mining Color: Laura Moriarty’s Encaustic Works’, Ducts.org, Issue 25 Summer 2010 Fisher, Marisa D.; ‘Gallrey features earthy new collection’. Arizona Daily Wildcat, 2/17/10 Ferrell, Samantha: ‘Artistic Range: Laura Moriarty at Conrad Wilde Gallery’. Tucson Weekly, 2/7/10 Musso, Anthony P.: ‘Beacon exhibit sheds new light on water’. Poughkeepsie Journal, 3/17/10 Calcavecchio, Donna; Ecotones and Transition Zones, at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art. Art Highlights, Roll Magazine: Creative Living in the Hudson Valley, August, 2009 North, Melora B.; ‘Cast of Castle Hill notables display their art in anniversary show at Provincetown Art Associaiton and Museum’. The Provincetown Banner, 3/11/2009 Litt, Steven; ‘Spaces exhibition revolves around nightmarish sculptures that look like biology experiments.’ The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, OH, 11/27/08 Utter, Douglas Max; ‘Against Nature: Artists at Spaces Rebuild Reality’ The Cleveland Free Times, 12/13/08 Edwards, Nicole; ‘Artists expand our ideas of terrestrial landscape and present new forms of representation’. Positively Cleveland.com, 10/10/08 ‘Globe North best bets; On the Edge’, The Boston Globe, Boston, MA, June 5, 2008 Wilson, Beth E.; ‘Portfolio: Laura Moriarty’, Chronogram Magazine, NY, May 2008 Wasserman, Nadine; ‘Species Pieces: Natural Selection at Albany International Airport Gallery’, Metroland, Albany, NY, January 2007 Kane, Tim; ‘Selection’ displays link of art, nature. The Times Union, Albany, NY April 1, 2007 Bjornland, Karen; ‘Wild kingdom’ at airport’s gallery enables visitors to travel back in time. The Daily Gazette, Albany, NY 3/31/07 Lombardi, D. Dominick; ‘Waxworks” NYArts Magazine, Jan/Feb 2007 Falkenstein, Michelle; ‘Creating Unusual Paints, and Teaching Artists How to Use Them’, The New York Times, 12/31/2006 Smart, Paul; ‘Foresighted Fossils: Laura Moriarty’s art plays with plate tectonics as metaphor’, Art alm@nac, Ulster Publishing, 6/16/05 Lombardi, Dominick; ‘Does inspiration lurk in the kitchen?’ The New York Times, 1/4/05 Brickman, David; ‘Laura Moriarty: Compressionistic Paintings’. Metroland, Albany,. NY, 9/16/2004 Smart, Paul; ‘A Beacon for artists’. Woodstock Times, Woodstock, NY, 5/6/04 Rice, Robin; ‘Down to Earth’. Citypaper, Philadelphia, PA, 10/16/03 Mitchell, Annette; Images In Wax: Contemporary Encaustic. Art New England, Oct/Nov 2001 Lombardi, D. Dominick; Exploring the Gamut of Contemporary Art, The New York Times, 6/17/01 Gardner, Wendy; Moriarty’s ‘Aerial View’ Evokes Longings for Times Past, Tribeca Trib, NY, 11/98 ice, Robin; WSW XX Years: A Retrospective, New Art Examiner, Chicago, IL, 10/94, and Hand Papermaking Magazine, Baltimore, MD, winter 1994





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