Through tactile geometry, Laurel Spark’s paintings propose an encoded worldview that pays tribute to occult histories of abstraction, counter-culture legacies, and ancient mystery traditions. Invisible systems of colored points, paths, numerical values, or text are simultaneously camouflaged and revealed through woven and interlocking shapes or patterns. As secrets hiding in plain sight, the compositions are not meant to be decoded, but experienced as an exchange of chaotic and equilibrating resonances. Like Dazzle Camouflage, the convergence of rhythm and talismanic shapes mesmerize while they defy recognition.
Laurel Sparks holds an MFA from Bard College and a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston at Tufts University. Exhibitions include solo shows at Kate Werble gallery, NYC; Knockdown Center, Brooklyn, NY; and group shows at Cheim and Read gallery, NYC; Leslie-Lohman Museum, NYC; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; and DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA. Awards include a MacDowell Fellowship; Elizabeth Foundation Studio Intensive Program at Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, NY; Fire Island Artist Residency, NY; Berkshire Taconic Fellowship; SMFA Alumni Traveling Fellowship; and an Elaine DeKooning Fellowship. Sparks lives and works between Brooklyn and Hudson Valley, NY, and teaches undergraduate and graduate painting at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
Zoom link to attend: https://otis.zoom.us/j/99302618710; Meeting ID: 993 0261 8710.
