Artist Bio

Laura Angilee Murray grew up in rural Tennessee, regularly attending Southern Baptist churches and funerals that her grandfather preached. Her father was a biker in a gang and her mother is a secret writer and avid scrap booker. She learned to draw as an adult and was amazed to find that she could also sculpt and paint out her experiences.

Deciding her work would be better informed by seeing the world, she traveled across the U.S. settling in Tucson, Arizona where she continued her education and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Arizona. She studied under the watchful eye of Barbara Rogers and was heavily influenced by Andrew Polk and the late Bruce McGrew in painting and printmaking. Moira Geoffrion guided her three-dimensional work into “the most cohesive body of work” according to a recruiter from Columbia University. She showed in Tucson, Phoenix, Scottsdale and Santa Fe.

Confronting personal demons, Laura’s large-scale figurative oil paintings and charcoal drawings challenge the viewer. When there is more than one figure on a canvas or more than one painting in a space, they seem to be engaging in a dialogue or are staged in some drama. Influenced by Odd Nerdrum, Richard Diebenkorn, Francis Bacon and Henri Matisse, some of the work is disturbing, staring right into the viewer’s eye or without a face, incorporating unreadable text, bright colors and occasionally a found object (Thank you, Michael Holsomback). The world she has created is both beautiful and terrible.

Laura Angilee Murray moved back to Tennessee after a decade in the desert and several visits to Puerto Rico where her partner and daughter are from. Current works include a series of paintings loosely based on women wrestlers from the 1950’s, butch women and water-filled self-portraits. She works for the Association for Visual Arts, teaches painting and sculpture at Cleveland State and creates in her studio at Rivoli Art Mill. You can see her recent work at www.lauraangileemurray.com or gatheringthequiet.com