Laura Vela ^{Noor kunstnik}

Kunstniku päritolumaa: Läti

Laura Vela researches concept and meaning behind the words identity and time, and uses them as the ideological basis for her creative work, demonstrating contemporary anxiety while exploring new forms and techniques. Artist refers to the impact of soviet occupation trauma on the identity of a modern human as well as the mythology of quantum physics. Laura Vela develops her technique by combining academic traditions of painting and drawing with new materials and media. Her main creative impulse stems from the explorations and observations of the social environment and identity/space. The form of the chosen artwork also plays a great importance for the artist. Just like a box of „Secrets” it is suitable for the fragmentation and storage of the memories and invites the viewer to approach it from a very close distance. The reflective surface of artworks creates a new time, synthesised from the perception of present in the past and the present occurring now. Artworks reflect observations of fragmented memories forming one’s identity, how each occurring recollection overwrites yet another fragment of memory and how, as with retelling of stories, they too change over time. How the retold stories form fictional memories about things that have never even happened to us, so that we trick ourselves with their colourful brightness. Laura Vela graduated from the Art Academy of Latvia and acquired Boris and Inara Teterevs’ foundation scholarship for master’s studies. From 2014 onwards she has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Latvia, Lithuania and Germany, as well as held five personal exhibitions. Most recent solo exhibition are “KEYFRAMES” at Jurmala city museum, “Nothingness” at Grand Poet Hotel and “Defragmentation of a Mind” at art galery “XO gallery”. The artist uses a wide arrange of materials – her most common form of expression is painting, however, she has also created installations, video art, animations and performances. In year 2020 Laura Vela graduated from the Art Academy of Latvia with a master thesis “Time.Identity”.