The Florence Biennale turned out to be a wonderful thing for my painting and painting. I have not yet decided if I will take part in the 2011 edition. I have been getting exhibition offers from all over the world. I will be taking place in an exhibition in Aquasparta, Italy this summer. The exhibition will travel all across Europe. Only eight artists were asked from around the world. I am very excited to be traveling to Lisbon, Portugal next May, next year, for a one person show. Lisbon seems to be the gateway to the artworld in Europe. It will be extremely good for my career. I am learning portugese. For the last month I have been asked by several people: What has led me to a life of such intense creativity? My paintings reflect such an intimate bond with nature that my viewers find so intriguing. Certainly growing up on a farm has a lot to do with it. The rhythms of the seasons- the agriculture, the crops, all of this left such a remarkable impression on my young mind. Growing up, we luxuriated in so much land, my grandfather especially had acquired almost 2,000 acres during his lifetime, and we had free access to this. In mind, body, and spirit, I roamed freely, and I am still a free spirit which I think is very visible in my artwork. Now as a mature young woman the “at home” feeling is intensified the most in the wilderness… when I am free to reflect in nature. I have such an intimate bond with nature, it is a feeling of indescribable beauty for me. In the woods and swimming in the ponds, I found solace and solitude from the hard work that is required to live on a farm. I found everything in nature and was very privately sustained and self-contained. The forest was my backyard, my playground, and my paradise. The axiom to my imagination. By the time I was 16, I knew I would devote my life to art. By the time I was a senior in high school, I had become ever more vigilant about my studying and painting. All I thought about was art. The materiality of color, the existing textures that were alive and that surrounded me on my parents’ beautiful farm, the sensory existence I lived and breathed, all of this would provide a strong foundation for an endless well of creativity and inspiration. To me, the tree limb is symbolic of the core of painting…it is the gesture and the line. I always had to work very hard on my parents’ tobacco farm, and so now I know how to devote myself to something, how to see an end result, and how to succeed.

Certainly I want more than a pure, imitation of nature. Yes, I do. I want to endow all the elements of the composition- to construct a harmony very similar to the same stylistic harmony that Matisse found. I read Jungian theory in college and Wassily Kandinsky’s “Concerning the Spiritual in Art,” which imagined art to be reflected upon the artist’s intuition and individual feelings. I have always read so much, and I bought into these ideas. There will always be those artists who seek nature abstractly. I am one of them. I want to explore not only what I can see, but also what I cannot see. I look for an emblematic translation of my private experience into abstract structure.

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New Exhibitions:

Open Studio Coming in July!!

One Person Show Colorida Art Gallery Lisbon, Portugal. Opening reception May 27th, 2011. Come meet me in Portugal next year!!

Ancient Places Aquasparta Kamaver Kunthaus International Group Exhibition opening June 27th, 2010 Aquasparta, Italy.

One-Person show by Laura Eklund. Frary Gallery. Sarasota, FL. come to the artist's reception (I will be there!) http://www.frarygallery.com Opening on Thursday April 8, 2010

The 2010 Art Institute of Pittsburgh Faculty Show. Opening Reception March 12, 2010. (I will be there!)

"Little Treasures" International Curated Exhibition, Bologna, Italy. Galleria De' Marchi, June 2010.

New Paintings by Laura Eklund and Chris Mozier. Pyro Gallery, http://www.pyrogallery.com Louisville, Ky. September 2010.

"Red Is the Color of Blood." International Group Show. Emerging and Expert Gallery. Maharashtra, India. February 24th, 2010- March 13th 2010.

New Paintings by Laura Eklund. The Artist's Alley. San Fransisco, California.

February 15st -May 15st, 2010  http://www.theartistsalley.com

The Fiji Biennale, The Fiji Islands, June 2010.

Laura Eklund & Paul Lorenze : The Face of Abstraction. January 2011.

Pyro Gallery. Louisville, Ky.

Beck Center for the Arts Cleveland, Ohio.  32 paintings by Laura Eklund.

2009 Florence Biennial, Fortezza da Bazo, Florence, Italy, December 5-13, 2009.

The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Faculty Show: Juried. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. February-March 2009     opening artist's reception: February 13, 2009

Art Raw Gallery, International Emerging Artist's Show, NY, NY. Feb-March 2009.

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