LAURA CLAY
Laura Clay is a Mexican American abstract artist with her MFA from the National Art School – Sydney. She was born to a Mexican mother and an American father who traveled constantly between their two nations. With this constant change of location, she has had the opportunity to encounter and embrace many different lifestyles and contradictory beliefs. Mexico has given her tradition, history and passion. The United States has provided structure, technique and personal ambition. As a Mexican American, she has both celebrated and struggled with a sense of duality and duplicity and the act of painting has allowed her to harness these complimentary and conflicting world views.
Her paintings hold a personal commentary on issues regarding ethnicity and identity in which she feels no need to make a choice between cultures. On the contrary, her work reflects the complexities of biculturalism through the distinction and merging of organic and geometric shapes.
“Looking at my paintings is like magnifying the corridors of each of my cultures and the identities tied to each. They show the vulnerable link between Mexico and the United States, the struggle between planning and intuition. There is a constant dialogue or battle between organic vs. geometric, chaos vs. order, fiesta vs. structure. I look to my mother's past to gather inspiration for geometric shapes found in the pyramids of Indigenous Mexico, similar to Octavio Medellín and Josef Albers. I look to my father's influence regarding poets and thinkers such as Octavio Paz and William Carlos Williams. Abstract painting depicts my inner juggling of selves, while staying true to my identity and ancestry.”
Website: www.lauraclayart.com
IG: @lauraclayart
Email: lauraclayart@gmail.com
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