Laura Post graduated with an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design’s Printmaking Department. She earned her BA from Swarthmore College in 2009 where she studied Art and Asian Studies, focusing on Chinese language. Most recently, she received a Graduate Studies Grant for the project Paper Genome Project, seeking to use alternative fibers and water sources for papermaking. During the summer of 2015, she apprenticed at Rongbaozhai in Beijing to learn traditional Chinese woodblock printing (muban shuiyin). In 2008, the Penelope Mason ’57 Memorial Fund for Asian Studies in 2008, enabled Post to study printmaking at the National Academy of Art in Hangzhou, China. In 2009, Post was awarded the Frank Solomon Art Prize by Swarthmore College, and her prints and paintings were acquired as part of Swarthmore College’s permanent collection. Additionally, she was awarded the Alice J. Crossley Prize for best research paper in Asian Studies for her thesis “Pan Yuliang: An Artist Between Two Worlds – Sino-European Artistic Exchange in the Early Twentieth Century.” Post has participated in numerous art shows and exhibitions. She hopes to return to China in the future to study traditional papermaking and other crafts such as ink-making and brush-making.
“Humans are the primary subjects of my art, specifically the part of us viewed and judged most readily by others—the face. My exploration of the face stems from a deep desire to better understand how we as a species interact with one another. This includes the amazingly complex systems that allow these interactions to occur – physiological, psychological, semantic, cultural, and social. My innate interest in people leads me to want to understand their story, and how it contributes to a worldview that then informs quotidian decisions. Understanding the perspective of others allows for greater empathy as we realize the root causes of certain behaviors or quirks. Ultimately, I hope my work encourages such empathy and appreciation for each individual’s unique contributions to society.”
For more about Laura and her work, visit her website at http://lrpstudio.com/about/