Artist Bio
Laurel Garcia Colvinʼs work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in several New York City galleries and galleries throughout the United States including Illinois, Texas, New York, Florida, Connecticut, California and New Jersey, as well as galleries in Spain and Ireland. Her work has been included in art fairs in New York City, Miami and Boston. She has been awarded a Saltonstall residency, Puffin Foundation grant, and Project Room solo exhibition at The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. She has received many positive reviews of her work in the New York Times and other tri-state newspapers. Her works are in private and corporate collections in England, Ireland, Brazil, New York, California, Connecticut, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, Florida,Illinois, Ohio and Texas.
Ms. Garcia Colvin received her BFA and MFA with highest honors from the University of Texas at Austin, and did post-graduate studies at Pratt Institute. She was on the art faculty of UT Austin where she taught drawing and art education courses.
Artist Statement
In the practice of my art I explore what it is to be a human in this world, both individually and collectively. I am interested in how the human psyche perceives and constructs reality, subjective experiences, illusion and disillusion. I render narrative figurative images, often in a fragmented way, to evoke emotional, psychological, or spiritual states and suggest human vulnerability when facing the discrepancy between desires and reality.
In my recent series of mixed media drawings I use the French 18th century designs of Toile de Jouy as the starting point. I juxtapose the background printed fabric narrative of a pastoral past populated by idyllic figures with a foreground of contemporary situations. Homelessness, gun violence, and other current controversies are in direct contrast to the nostalgic, sanitized, leisurely decorum of these historical toile patterns. The overlay of silhouettes and detailed renderings of figures inhabiting this fragmented world create visual commentaries on the contradictions, changes and complexities of contemporary life. With undertones of foreboding, wanting and dismay, these works delve into the world of reality and fantasy, and provide a visual space to reflect on and reconsider the relationship between what remains, what is scrapped and what is made new in society’s collective consciousness.
