LAURA BELL

Laura Bell's current work explores the possibilities for disruption and fluctuation that grow out of an orderly structure. The images reference the natural, physical world, drawing on forms from deep-sea flora and fauna, microscopic organisms and cellular structures, and cryptogamous plants such as algae, lichens, fungus, and mold. The astonishing and often unsettling beauty found in natural phenomenon is explored through the use of imaginary, hybrid, and existent imagery.

The repeating marks and forms are derived from patterns of repetition found in biological systems, as well as by the regularity and repetition found in computer generated fractals and lace patterns. While the images are built on symmetrical and orderly forms, the drawings evolve and develop into a semi-chaotic tangle of ropy vines, bulbous growths, and spiky creatures. This rampant growth could recall the enchanted, yet sinister world of a child’s fairy tale, the strange and unsettling beauty of deep-sea life, or the mutation of a cellular structure by a virus or disease. The delicate intricacy in the drawn and painted marks lures one in for a more intimate experience, and presents a dream-like, interior world populated by forms that are both familiar and mysterious.

Biography

Laura Bell lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia. She was born and raised in Seattle and received a BA degree from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington and her MFA degree in printmaking from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Bell is fascinated by the idea of worlds that we cannot see. Her work combines painting and drawing and is influenced by sources that range from the intricacies of Moorish tile work and Persian miniatures to Hieronymous Bosch and Dr. Seuss to Chinese ink painting and botanical illustration. Bell was listed in vol.58 of New American Paintings (released June 2005) and her work was also featured in the premiere issue of Condé Nast’s Domino Magazine as one of the top ten picks at the AAFNY Art Fair in 2004. Recent exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Atlanta, her Canadian premiere at the Jennifer Kostuik Gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia, the Kiang Gallery in Atlanta and Ruby Green Contemporary Art Center in Nashville, as well as group exhibitions in Atlanta, Berlin (Germany).

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