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American car dealerships, subway cars, reality companies, and convenience store bags bear the national flag as surface emblems. Once you step into a 99 , 7-Eleven, or a duane reade store, notice that superfluous items from ?support-our-troop? stickers, to calendars and cigarette lighters are wrapped in American motifs. My paintings and installations depict and contain representational objects which I stylize to focus on the disjunction between a subject and its symbolic message. I am interested in the human desire to embody a national message through a historic event or in a memento and how this shapes our culture.
Reminiscent of Philip Guston, who referred to painting as ?possessing,? I find a deliberate subject through a loose but obsessive material process. I embrace a clumsy formalism which can lend itself to social commentary. Like many of Edward Kienholz?s environments, I find it important that my paintings and installations are exaggerated from the everyday spaces they reference in order to be critical of nationalism. By exploring American subjects, I hope to better grasp our tendency to surround ourselves with symbols. Recently, I have been interested in Mark Dion?s process of collecting, categorizing, and displaying, which results in bizarre spectacles addressing mans desire to dominate. I am interested in deflating some of the symbolism behind my subjects to examine how prideful mementos and events become ironically juxtaposed onto natural and domestic spaces.
My current paintings of hot-air balloons, blimps, flags, cabins, soldiers, and John Wayne, critique a genre of American culture which is both traditional and nostalgic. I sometimes ?google? images, for references, which I then use to recollect and abstract an era which is so deeply ingrained it can seem daunting. The emblems and caricatures I study beckon to us, seemingly as friendly embodiments of peace, pride, and happiness.
Individuals form goals based on these archetypes. I believe we personify objects that represent national ideals, which gives us faith and confidence in our beliefs and state of affairs. However the junk we surround ourselves with is still, beautiful junk. There is a disjunction between the fondness we have for the ideal, and the nostalgia we have for the object. A giant flag billowing above a car dealership can function as a consumerist horizon line, a ?support-our-troop? sticker on the bumper of an SUV calls both to empathy and the denial of a dire situation. It is important to have faith in the nation, but also to take a second look at an ironic juxtaposition when you see one. I am interested in capturing the moment when a symbolic object transitions from being a powerful illusion and is then, left in a state of ambiguity or inverse meaning. These are the everyday observations and references that fuel my current work.

Laura Marsh

Born:
Montrose, PA 1982

Lives:
Queens County, NY

Biography
Born in the small town of Montrose, Pennsylvania (bordering the Southeast corner of New York State) in 1982, Laura Marsh began to question her roles as a woman, citizen, and contemporary artist. She found herself generally interested in social politics and gender issues, but in a subliminal and intuitive way.
Her family had been no stranger to economic worry, divorce, long-distance, or strong will. The subject of her work is rooted in locating American desire through implicating a consumer abject and unveiling something awkward about its nature. ?I become attracted to objects that I either own or have seen in passing, and I try to study their social significance by drawing them or sculpting them to give them humility, if anything else.? The result of this process is often very stylized, low-tech, and sometimes illustrative work, which is more concerned with surface and pattern than conventional space or technique.
The subject of her work takes form and continues to vary in tandem with her reactions to residing in urban environments. Marsh received her BFA at the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2006, attended Maine College of Art in 2004, and Yale Norfolk Summer School for the Arts and Music in 2003.

Laura Marsh

CONTACT:
lauralmarsh@gmail.com / 216.255.0586
260 Moore Street, Apt. 201
Brooklyn, NY
11206

EDUCATION
2001-2006 B.F.A Painting, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland OH
Spring 2005 Sculpture, Maine College of Art, Portland ME
Summer 2004 Yale Summer School of the Arts and Music, Norfolk CT
Two month travel abroad to Bangalore, India
WORK RELATED EXPERIENCE
2007 Manager/ Assistant, Area, Brooklyn NY
2006 Teacher, Ramapo, Airmont NY
2006-2005 Gallery Assistant, Reinberger Gallery, Cleveland OH
2004 Gallery Assistant, Yale Norfolk Gallery, Norfolk CT
Assistant Curator, Survey Gallery, Cleveland OH
2003-2001 Teacher for YPC Classes, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland OH

TECHNICAL/ ARTISTIC SKILLS
Fluent in Photoshop, Illustrator, Final Cut Pro, Microsoft
Office, Excel, FileMaker Pro
Scheduling Appointments and Contacting Collectors
Proposal Writing
Gallery Prep-work
Filing and Archiving
Combining mixed media to varied ends.

EXHIBITIONS
2006 Cleveland Institute of Art, BFA Solo Show, Cleveland, OH
Reinberger Galleries, "Student Independent Exhibition 60,"
Juried by Misaki Kawai, Peter Joseph, and Christine Kesler,
Cleveland Instituteof Art, Cleveland OH
2005 Red Shoe Delivery Service, Deer I Submission, Collaborative Project,
New York NY www.redshoedeliveryservice.com
2004 Survey Gallery, Tower of Babel II, Solo Show, Cleveland OH
CWRU Case Western University, "International Student Week,"
Tower of Babel I, Solo Attraction, Cleveland OH
Yale Norfolk Gallery, "Summer Show," Familiar Voids, Yale
Summer School of the Arts and Music, Norfolk CT
River Heights Gallery, "ID.ENTITY," International Clock,
Rock River OH
Coffee House Gallery, Office Space 9-5, Group Performance,
Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland OH
2003 University of Pittsburg Medical Center, Women's Care Center,"
Art Cures," Four Versions of Herself, Hermington PA
Survey Gallery, Fabricated Dress Series, "Art Snots," Cleveland OH
Reinberger Galleries, "Student Independent Exhibition 57,"
Juried by Brad Brown, and Nicky S. Lee, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland OH
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
2006 Second Place, "Student Independent Exhibition 60," Cleveland
Institute of Art, Cleveland OH
2005 Ted Frost Scholarship, for Excellence in Painting, Cleveland
Institute of Art,
Cleveland OH
2004 Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship, Yale Summer School of the
Arts and Music,
Norfolk CT
Joseph McCullough Scholarship, for Excellence in Painting,
Cleveland Institute
of Art, Cleveland OH
Myrtle Waintrup Givelber Scholarship, For a Female Artist
for Traveling and/or
Pursuing Outside Education, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland OH
Martha M. Spindler, '52 Scholarship for Excellence in
Painting, Cleveland
Institute of Art, Cleveland OH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2004 Sreshta Premnath, "Jetlag," Shifter Magazine, Feb.
www.shifter/magazine.com, International Clock submission.
2005 Sreshta Premnath, "On Translation," Shifter Magazine, Oct.
Multiple Paths to the U.S. submission.