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Laura Larson

Introduction: Laura Larson is an American photographer based in Athens, Ohio. (1) Her work encompasses photography, video, film, digital media, and writing. (2) Larson is interested in the presumption of objectivity in photography.

Biography Larson earned her BA in English from Oberlin College, her MFA in Visual Art from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, and she participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program. Larson is represented by the Lennon, Weinberg Gallery in New York City, (2) and she teaches photography in the School of Art at Ohio University.(1)

Larson’s Work Larson’s work challenges the notion of the medium that “never lies. In her “Domestic Interiors” and “My Dark Places” series, she photographs dollhouse interiors, playing with the viewer’s perception of scale. (3)

Larson’s “Well-Appointed” series depicts the interior of historical homes, focusing on the lavish furniture and raising questions of wealth and power. (4) Her series “Complementary” captured traces of occupancy in hotel rooms after checkout and before maid service. Larson used the interrelationship of First-wave feminism and Second-wave feminism as a jumping off point for these four bodies of work, which center around mise en scene, and how the rooms themselves tell a story. (5)

Two related series “Apparition” and “Asylum” focus on the paranormal. Larson created her own spirit photographs, using cigarette smoke to reference the staged spirit photographs of the 19th century. (5)

Larson’s focus shifted to the representation of the body with her series “Ectoplasm,” referencing the both humorous and moving 19th century photographs of female mediums. (5)

Curatorial Larson had a successful Kickstarter campaign for the artist book Hidden Mother which grew into an exhibition. The project was inspired by Larson’s adoption of her daughter from Ethiopia. (6) Larson curated approximately thirty-five 19th century portraits of children, that due to the long exposure time needed to be kept calm and/or propped up by their mothers. The mothers were comically hidden from view with studio props, such as piece of cloth draped over them, or in post-production, with their faces scratched off of the print. Larson presents the images unedited, posing the question “Why not photograph the mother and child together?” (1)

Awards/Grants 2014 Ohio Arts Council, Excellence Award in Creative Nonfiction Wexner Center for the Arts, Art and Tech Program, Columbus, OH Production residency for multi-media project, Mental Radio 2012 Ohio University, Baker Fund Award for book and exhibition, Hidden Mother Ohio University, OURC Award for multi-media project, Mental Radio 2011 Ohio River Border Initiative Arts Network, Artist Fast Track Grant 2009 Ohio River Border Initiative Arts Network, Artist Fast Track Grant 2008 Wexner Center for the Arts, Art and Tech Program, Columbus, OH Post-production residency for film, Electric Girls and the Invisible World Ohio River Border Initiative Arts Network, Artist Fast Track Grant 2007 Wexner Center for the Arts, Art and Tech Program, Columbus, OH Post-production residency for multi-media project, Electric Girls and the Invisible World Ohio University, Baker Fund Award for multi-media project, Electric Girls and the Invisible W orld 2006 Ohio University, College of Fine Arts, Creative Research Award for multi-media project, Electric Girls and the Invisible World 2005 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, VA. Artist Residency 2003 MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH. Artist Residency 2002 Ucross Foundation, Clearmont, WY. Artist Residency Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM. Artist Residency 2000 Brooklyn Information and Culture, Brooklyn, NY. Video residency at Brooklyn Community Access Television 1998 New York Foundation for the Arts, Artist Fellowship in Photography 1992 Mason Gross School of the Arts Scholarship Oberlin College Alumni Fellowship 1990 Art Matters, Inc.

Public Collections -	Deutsche Bank -	The Margulies Collection -	Metropolitan Museum of Art -	Microsoft -	Museum of Fine Arts, Houston -	New York Public Library -	Sonesta Hotels

Solo Exhibitions 2014 Lennon, Weinberg Gallery, Photographs 1996-2012, New York, NY (catalog) 2010 Wexner Center for the Arts, Electric Girls and the Invisible World, Columbus, OH 2009 Lennon, Weinberg Gallery, Electric Girls and the Invisible World, New York, NY 2008 Fine Arts Center Galleries, Apparition, Kingston, RI 2005 Lennon, Weinberg Gallery, Apparition, New York, NY 2002 Lennon, Weinberg Gallery, Complimentary, New York, NY 2000 Susanne Vielmetter L.A. Projects, My Dark Places, Los Angeles, CA 1999 Linda Kirkland Gallery, Well-Appointed, New York, NY 1996 PS 122, The Collector’ s Cabinet, New York, NY

Footnotes 1. Laura Larson, Blue Sky Gallery (2014) http://www.blueskygallery.org/exhibition/laura-larson/#1.

2. Laura Larson artist website, biography http://www.lauralarson.net/about.html.

3. Carol Armstrong, Through a Doll's Eye: Laura Larson’s Domestic Interiors, Documents, Issue 11, 1998.

4. Ken Johnson, Art Review: Well Appointed, The New York Times, Feb. 5, 1999.

5. Margaret Sundell, Interview with Margaret Sundell, Photographs 1996-2012 Lennon, Weinberg Gallery, July 10 to September 13, 2014.

6. Hidden Mother Kickstarter Campaign (2015) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/570734658/hidden-mother.