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
- 1998 Aerial View. Synagogue for the Arts, New York, NY
- 1996 Manual Labor. Time & Space Limited, Hudson, NY
Group:
- 2010 Geologic Time. Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
- 2010 Post MARK. Columbia-Greene Community College, Hudson, NY
- 2010 Field Notes: States of Mind. University of Virginia at Charlottesville
- 2010 Luminous Layers. Curated by Linda Womack, Lakewood Center for the Arts, Lake Oswego, OR
- 2009 Sweet Spot. Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont, NY
- 2009 Ecotones and Transition Zones. Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz
- 2009 Graphica Creativa: International Printmaking Triennial, Jyväskylä Art Museum, Jyväskylä, Finland. Curated by Jukka Partenen.
- 2009 New Prints Spring 2009. Selected by Polly Apfelbaum, International Print Center New York
- 2009 The Patchogue Arts Biennial. Briarcliffe Exhibition Hall, St. Josephs College, Patchogue, NY
- 2009 Castle Hill @ PAAM: 38 Years of Inspiration. Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA
- 2008 Hyper-Nature. Spaces, Cleveland, OH
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: Emerging Artists from Connecticut and Southeast New York. 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. Co-curated by Karl Willers and Beth E. Wilson, 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
- 2002 20 years of printmaking at the Frans Masereel Centre, Belgium. Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh, U.K.
- 2001 Breaking the Rules: Art 2001. Katonah Museum of Art, NY. Selected by Eugenie Tsai.
- 2001 New Prints 2001 – Summer. International Print Center New York, New York, NY
- 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
- 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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