LAURA LOWE (b.1991 Vantaa) is a painter working with structural colour. Unlike pigments, the immaterial colours that Lowe explores emerge from the refraction of light — like in a prism. Her alchemically-inspired artistic practice is the result of hundreds of trials in the laboratory, manipulating her painting mediums into exhibiting the iridescent oil slicks created by fossil fuel contamination.
A recent graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts, Lowe’s MFA degree show was awarded the Anita Snellman Stipend. She has just completed her first public artwork, after winning the Hotel GLO Art competition. Lowe is currently working with a grant from the Oskar Öflunds Stiftelse for upcoming shows in Turku and Helsinki, based on research conducted with the Bioart Society and the Biofilia laboratory at Aalto University. She has been selected for the Ars Bioarctica residency ‘25 in Kilpisjärvi, where she will explore the relationship between fossil fuel contamination and the disappearing ice of the North.
Lowe lives and works in HEL.
THE STRUCTURAL COLOUR PAINTINGS were born from observations of the Hanasaari coal power plant from my studio window. The series examines the rainbow phenomenon found in freshly split coal seams and the oil slicks floaitng across Hanasaari Bay. I am interested in structural colour’s ability to change in response to the viewer and their surroundings. Almost like living entities, they burst into colour as the viewer walks past. These ‘living and dying paintings’ react to stimuli from their environment: changing light, moving shadows, and reflected shape and colour. The mirror-like surface merges the observer’s reflection with the kaleidoscopic event taking place on the canvas — our participation within this ecosystem. My work reflects on how our fate is ultimately intertwined with the changes happening in the environment.
For inquiries please contact:
Laura Lowe Studio
lauralowestudio [at] gmail.com
