MAGNOLIA LAURIE

About the Artist

Magnolia Laurie was born in Massachusetts and raised in Puerto Rico. She received her BA in Critical Social Thought from Mount Holyoke College and her MFA from the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has been awarded residencies from the Vermont Studio Center, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, and the Jentel Foundation in Wyoming. Magnolia’s work has been supported with grants from the Creative Baltimore Fund, the Maryland State Arts Council Grants, the Belle Foundation and a Mid Atlantic Creative Fellowship. Magnolia lives in Baltimore, MD and is an Assistant Professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA.

Artist's Statement

My work explores ideas of landscape, vantage point, and our complex relationship to land. Absent of any actual people, the paintings depict gestures of the built environment as both literal evidence and metaphor for human impact. The images draw from history and current events, recomposing the images and issues that flood our daily thoughts. In my most recent paintings, borders, fences, and framing devices are repeated motifs and often denote division, proximity, or distance.