2023 VISUAL ARTist
Laura Battle
Numbers correspond to exhibition map
1. In Gallery
a. Untitled, 2023, oil and mixed media/canvas, 5’ x 7’
b. Untitled, 2023, oil and mixed media/canvas, 5’ x 8’
2. On Grounds
a.Guardian, 2023, ceramic, 5’
b. Receiver (3:30 pm), 2023, ceramic, 5’
c. Orbit, 2023, ceramic, 64”
d. Traveler, 2023, ceramic, 78”
e. Porter, 2023, ceramic, 60”
f. Blast, 2023, ceramic & glass bottle, 26”
Statement
I have spent several decades as an artist exploring the potential of geometry to offer an optically charged mental space in which to explore universal visual language. My work is informed by diagrams of the universe, mathematical configurations, codes and symbols, maps and charts of all kinds, esoteric manuscripts, Arabic geometries, forces in nature like the ebb and flow of water, and by the work of innumerable artists. I look at the work of untrained artists, of mystics, calligraphers and craftsmen. Inspiration has come from many of the remarkable things I have seen and done, for instance climbing to the top of the pyramid of Cheops, spending the night and watching the sunrise. I truly experienced the mapping of infinity when I saw the astronomical architectural instruments of Jantar Mantar in India. Spending an afternoon at the Emma Kunz Zentrum in Wurenlos changed me. The process of geometrically dividing the rectangle serves as a starting point for all of my work and offers a broad conceptual space for my obscure mental meanderings. Inherent in the rectangle are geometric forces that describe human experience. These forces are derived from the ways in which horizontals, verticals and diagonals intersect, height to width, corner to corner. The center pulls, triangles emerge, corners converse, grids and spirals show up seemingly out of the blue. Images emerge out of a back and forth between working both systematically and intuitively as I respond, one move to the next. Enantiodromia is defined as a principle whereby "the superabundance of any force inevitably produces its opposite." This Jungian concept succinctly describes what I go through as I search for optically compelling images. I have spent decades drawing line after line, marking time, meditating, floating in repetition. I get bored. My patience gets tested. Then there is the moment when memory, history, the intellect, my imagination, and my materials-at-hand all sync up, and an image begins to encapsulates its making. I disappear. My work of art leaves me and becomes itself.
About Laura Battle
Laura Battle is an American painter, visual artist, and educator. Battle began her study at The Corcoran School of Art, and went on to study at Kirkland College, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Yale School of Art, and the Pitchuck Glass School. Battle’s work has been featured in several solo and duo exhibitions, including shows at the Lohin Geduld Gallery in New York, Arsenal 17 in Benicia, CA, and the Atelier du Caire in Cairo, Egypt, and in over 50 group shows at several venues, including the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Academy Museum, the Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, the Gallerie D’Art in Carthage, Tunisia, the Binational Fulbright Commission in Cairo, Egypt, the Kanazawa College of Art in Kanazawa, Japan, and the Binational Exhibition through the America’s Society in Cuenca, Ecuador. Battle has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Yale School of Art, Assumption College, the Vermont College of Norwich University, and Bard College, and has received several accolades for her work, including the Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant (2010), the Purchase Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2010), a visiting artist award from the American Academy in Rome (2004), an award from the National Endowment for the Arts (1989), a Fulbright Fellowship (1984-1985), and the Ely Harwood Schless Memorial Prize at Yale (1983). Additionally, Battle has curated more than 20 exhibitions all over the United States. www.laurabattle.com