My practice is rooted in performance and the body. Through photography, sculpture, painting and installation, my work responds to lived experience through gesture and repetition. For the past nine years, I've lived portably and experimentally in the coastal redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains. New and old growth redwood trees greet me at my doorstep, reminding me of their layered histories. The sandstone hillsides are embedded with time and memory, a material intrinsic to place. Living in the forest is a precarious act and I am a direct witness and participant to all that nature manifests: It is both peaceful and terrifying at once.
Deeply influenced by existential thought and psychology, I relate my practice to a meditation on being in the world. I source material from my immediate surroundings to better understand my relationship to time and place. Through my art practice, I aim to understand the nature of existence in its purest form.
Laura Lani DeAngelis is an interdisciplinary artist of Samoan, Tokelauan and Pālagi (European) heritage. She holds an MFA from Mills College and is a recipient of the Nancy Cook Fellowship and Jay DeFeo Prize. Her work has been exhibited in Sacramento, San Francisco, and across the Bay Area. She resides in Boulder Creek, California where she serves as the Executive Director for the San Lorenzo Valley Museum.
Laura Lani DeAngelis (she/her)
Boulder Creek, California
(760) 793-9905
EDUCATION
2023 Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship Nominee
2021 Master of Fine Arts, Mills College
2021 Jay DeFeo MFA Prize Recipient
2021 Nancy Cook Travel Fellowship Awardee
2021 Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship Nominee
2020 Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship in Painting and Sculpture Nominee
2017 Artist in Residence, Northwestern Oklahoma State University, Alva, Oklahoma
2012 Master of Art Studio, California State University of Sacramento
2011 Graduate Level Award of Artistic Achievement, Second Place, “Complexities of
Existence”, Annual Student Awards Show, California State University of Sacramento
2006 Bachelor of Arts in Art, University of Nevada
SELECTED SOLO, TWO & THREE PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2023 "FORMATIONS" 2021 Nancy Cook Travel Fellowship Exhibition, Slide Space 123, Oakland, California
2019 “Sad Cloud” The Bench Gallery, San Francisco, California
2018 "Collected in Woods County" Lille Aeske, Boulder Creek, California
2015 "To Herself" Shimo Gallery, Sacramento, California
2012 “The Residue of an Aimless Pursuit” California State University of Sacramento Union
Gallery, Sacramento, California
2011 “hidden from itself” CSUS Else Gallery, Sacramento, California
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 "Introductions 2021" Root Division, San Francisco, California
2021 "Crystal Ball" Mills College MFA Thesis Exhibition, Mills College Art Museum, Oakland California
2020 "Bay Area Current(ly)" PhotoAlliance online exhibition, http://www.photoalliance.org/2020-bay-area-currently
2018 "Cultural Compositions" Cosumnes River College, Sacramento California
2014 "Live Forever and See" Room and Makers, San Francisco California
2013 "100-50-1" NWBLK, San Francisco, California
2012 “6x6” Invitational, Temporary Contemporary Gallery, Sacramento California
“Confluence” Master of Arts Exhibition, Library Gallery California State University of Sacramento, Sacramento California
“Untitled” E Street Gallery, Sacramento California
2011 “addendum” Group Show, California State University of Sacramento, Else Gallery,
Sacramento, California
“Complexities of Existence” Annual Student Awards Show, California State University of
Sacramento Else Gallery, Sacramento, California
2006 “Digital Translations” La Biblioteca de Universidad Iberoamericano, Puebla, Mexico
TEACHING AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2023 Textiles for Future, Summer Camp, Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento, California
2023 Executive Director, San Lorenzo Valley Museum, Boulder Creek, California
2022 Studio Artist Educator, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California
2021 Darkroom Photography Teaching Assistant and Photography Lab Technician under Professor Kija Lucas, Mills College, Oakland, California
2020 Darkroom Photography Teaching Assistant and Photography Lab Technician under Professor Jennifer Brandon, Mills College, Oakland, California
2019 Dressing Modern Workshop, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada
2019 Photography Workshop for Arts Educators, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada
2018 Ageless Art Instructor, Family Service Agency of the Central Coast, Santa Cruz, California
2017 Self-Portrait Workshop, Northwestern Oklahoma State University, Alva, Oklahoma
PUBLICATIONS
2021 “Introductions 2021” Exhibition Catalogue, (https://issuu.com/rootdivision/docs/intro2021_catalogue).
2015 "The Meadow 2015 Literary Arts Journal " Issue 10,
(http://www.tmcc.edu/meadow/downloads/flipbook/2015/index.html). Cover Art, August.
2013 “Sac State Art Department Newsletter,” volume 2, issue 1,
(http://www.csus.edu/indiv/o/obriene/Home%20page/ARTNEWS3_FALL2012.pdf).
Pages 6,7, January.
2012 Under the Gum Tree, Issue 2 (http://underthe gumtree.com/issues/). Photo Essay,
“hidden from itself”, January.
REVIEWS
2014 "Unusual Encounters" by Joey Golaw (https://medium.com/room-and-makers/unusual-encounters-43c8ccbd1611