Laura Camila Medina (1995) is an interdisciplinary artist born in Bogotá, Colombia. Her practice is deeply inspired by the kisses between mountains and sky of her birthplace intertwined with the thematic fantasy-scape and migrant microcosms of Orlando, FL. Her work has been exhibited at Yossi Milo, David Castillo Gallery, Arts Fort Worth, Fuller Rosen Gallery, the Portland Art Museum, Nationale, and with the Nat Turner Project. She was awarded the AICAD Post-Graduate Teaching Fellowship to teach at the Cleveland Insitute of Art, the H. Lee Hirsche Memorial Prize, Dean’s Travel Grant, and CCAM Fellowship at Yale University, Individual Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission, New Media Fellowship at Open Signal, and various artist residencies including: the Living School of Art, ACRE, Signal Fire, and Centrum. She is represented by Nationale in Portland, OR. Medina earned her BFA at the Pacific Northwest College of Art and an MFA in Painting & Printmaking from Yale University.
My practice honors dreaming and imagination as crucial components of remembering and survival. Experiences of transnationality have informed the process of intuitive collage through which I create analogies of memory composition and identity construction. Compelled by new media explorations, I have developed a unique method that transforms painting, sculpture, and video collage into 3D rendered landscapes that permeate the boundaries between the handmade and the digitally created. My work imagines a possible world through bio-mythographical symbols, images from Colombian and US pop culture, and non-linear animation to actualize the “internal landscape”; a site where memories are in a state of constant reconstruction. This process has become a powerful tool for me to bridge the gap between geographical distance and emotional closeness, fostering a sense of belonging and continuity amidst displacement. Currently, my research threads together evolutions in Andean miniature practices, scale theory in relation to distance and memory, and magical realism as an approach to auto-ethnography. I seek to continuously build an archive that addresses the complexities and fallacies of cultural and national identity, “the American Dream”, gender, familial history, and personal/collective memory through an embodied perspective.
My practice honors dreaming and imagination as crucial components of remembering and survival. Experiences of transnationality have informed the process of intuitive collage through which I create analogies of memory composition and identity construction. Compelled by new media explorations, I have developed a unique method that transforms painting, sculpture, and video collage into 3D rendered landscapes that permeate the boundaries between the handmade and the digitally created. My work imagines a possible world through bio-mythographical symbols, images from Colombian and US pop culture, and non-linear animation to actualize the “internal landscape”; a site where memories are in a state of constant reconstruction. This process has become a powerful tool for me to bridge the gap between geographical distance and emotional closeness, fostering a sense of belonging and continuity amidst displacement. Currently, my research threads together evolutions in Andean miniature practices, scale theory in relation to distance and memory, and magical realism as an approach to auto-ethnography. I seek to continuously build an archive that addresses the complexities and fallacies of cultural and national identity, “the American Dream”, gender, familial history, and personal/collective memory through an embodied perspective.
︎ WHAT’S LAU UP TO? ︎
︎ AICAD FELLOWSHIP
︎TALE SPINNER EXHIBITION
︎ GARDEN MAGIC EXHIBITION
︎ THEY STOLE THE SWEET AWAY
︎ ... AND THE DOGS WERE SILENT
︎ SURFACE TROUBLE
︎ ENTRE DOS PALMAS
︎ BLANKET STATEMENT
︎ PORTLAND BUILDING
︎VARIABLE WEST
︎YALE SCHOOL OF ART
︎IPRC MURAL
︎BUCKMAN JOURNAL 008
︎REPRESENTATION AT NATIONALE
︎CALDERA RESIDENCY
︎OAC ARTIST FELLOWSHIP
︎PORTALS EXHIBITION
︎MIRA MIRA, MIRROR MIRROR EXHIBITION
︎EMERGING ARTIST CENTRUM RESIDENCY
︎ACRE RESIDENCY
︎LSA PUBLIC ART
︎STELO WINDOW PROJECT
︎MYTHS & RITUALS AT PAM
︎TALE SPINNER EXHIBITION
︎ GARDEN MAGIC EXHIBITION
︎ THEY STOLE THE SWEET AWAY
︎ ... AND THE DOGS WERE SILENT
︎ SURFACE TROUBLE
︎ ENTRE DOS PALMAS
︎ BLANKET STATEMENT
︎ PORTLAND BUILDING
︎VARIABLE WEST
︎YALE SCHOOL OF ART
︎IPRC MURAL
︎BUCKMAN JOURNAL 008
︎REPRESENTATION AT NATIONALE
︎CALDERA RESIDENCY
︎OAC ARTIST FELLOWSHIP
︎PORTALS EXHIBITION
︎MIRA MIRA, MIRROR MIRROR EXHIBITION
︎EMERGING ARTIST CENTRUM RESIDENCY
︎ACRE RESIDENCY
︎LSA PUBLIC ART
︎STELO WINDOW PROJECT
︎MYTHS & RITUALS AT PAM
little paper windows, part of “and the forms which linger, humming in their ears”, Yale MFA Thesis Exhibition 2024