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Exhibition dates: October 30 – December 11, 2015
Opening reception: Friday, October 30, 5-7 pm
The Elizabeth A. Beland Gallery at Essex Art Center is pleased to present beyond|return, mixed media drawing by Michele Lauriat.
It is within the in-between that Michele Lauriat finds the source of her imagery and her imaginary. Collision between telephone pole and tree, or rooftop shadow cast on grassy lawn inform the decisions made evident with her brush, pencil or charcoal. Pattern repeats and then breaks down – cloud passing over landscape plays these tricks on vision.
In her oversized drawings using gouache, watercolor, graphite, charcoal, and wax pencil on paper, Michele Lauriat focuses on the play of architectural shapes amongst the organic patterns of the landscape. She says: “While my motivation – or impulse – is a visual one, bringing the groundless aspect of my landscape drawings to the suburbs speaks to the instability of the stability seeker’s haven: suburbia. It is a place where it is easy to find comfort in the patterns and the maintenance of order, and hard to see beyond….Yet, between housing bubbles, divorces, floods, sinkholes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and the poor economy, even well maintained homes seem like a bleak reminder that the bottom can fall out at any moment.”
Michele earned her BFA in 2002 at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and her MFA in 2011 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her drawings have been exhibited nationally, including solo exhibitions in Chicago, Vermont, and Massachusetts. In 2014 Michele was named the Grant Wood Fellow in Drawing and Painting at the University of Iowa. In 2012 Michele participated in Artist Residencies at Zion National Park and Grand Canyon National Park. In addition to showing at Beland Gallery this fall, Michele’s drawings can be seen in Land Ho!, a landscape exhibition at the Fitchburg Art Museum.
Image credit: Michele Lauriat, Untitled from the series beyond|return, mixed media on paper, 55 x 60", 2014
The Elizabeth A. Beland Gallery is located on the first floor of Essex Art Center
Gallery Hours: M-F 10-6
Closed: November 3, 11, 25-27
Call for additional evening hours
FREE and open to the public
Essex Art Center
56 Island St.
Lawrence, MA 01840
