Laura Lowe
Saturnine, 2023, Oil and organic matter on canvas
The artwork is exhibited in the Kuva/Tila gallery on the 1st floor of the Mylly building.
Introduction
What we have been, or now are, we shall not be tomorrow
― Ovid, Metamorphoses
My paintings reflect on metamorphosis, – how nature’s cycle of growth and decay is also ultimately intertwined with human impermanence. I am searching for a new language of painting that responds to our contemporary experience of a changing world. I strive to create paintings that change in front of the viewer's eye, that react to temperature or light, that emerge from the surface of the painting as a thick mass.
I incorporate organic material, such as taxidermy, plants, and bioplastic 3D prints into my work. My process is guided by an idea of the cycle of matter, and of colour as an indicator revealing this change.
The rainbow-like structural colour is created by wavelengths of light, rather than by pigment. This alchemical process has demanded many nights in the materials science laboratory testing various alcohols and solvents. I've also learned to whip up a damn good whiskey sour.
About the artist
Artist Laura Lowe was born in 1991 in Vantaa.