LAURA LOWE (b.1991 Helsinki) is a painter working with the iridescent colour spectra found in oil slicks. Rather than using pigment, her “Structural Colour Paintings” produce colour by manipulating and building up material layers of translucent paint — which bend and refract light like a prism. Lowe’s alchemically-inspired artistic practice is informed by hundreds of trials in the laboratory and an scientific inquiry into the metamorphoses of light and matter.
A recent graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki, Lowe’s MFA degree show was awarded the Anita Snellman Stipend. She has just completed her first public commission, after winning First Prize and Audience Favourite in the Hotel GLO Art competition. Lowe has been working with a grant from the Oskar Öflunds Stiftelse for solo shows in Turku and Helsinki, based on research conducted with the Biofilia laboratory at Aalto University.
For next year, she has been selected for the Bioart Society’s Ars Bioarctica residency in Kilpisjärvi, and HIAP’s Suomenlinna residency in a collaboration with Scottish printmaker Constanza Dessain. Both projects explore the relationship between fossil fuel contamination and disappearing ice. Lowe is currently working toward upcoming solo shows at Huuto-galleria and Forum Box.
Lowe lives and works in HEL.
THE STRUCTURAL COLOUR PAINTINGS were born from observations of the Hanasaari coal power plant from the artist’s studio window. The series examines the rainbow phenomenon known as ‘strutural colour’ — found in freshly split coal seams and the oil slicks floaitng across Hanasaari Bay.
Lowe is 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. Her 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
