OPENING! 11 June: Thrifters and Transformers • 18.00 conversation with the artists • 19.00 opening More info

Artist

Laura Põld

mixed media, ceramics

Laura Põld

In essence

Laura Põld’s practice combines interdisciplinary and traditional craft skills with sculpture-based mediums. Through these lenses, she examines posthuman and more-than-human ways of being, caring, community building, and sheltering. She creates large-scale assemblages, constructions and installations from these sources, which playfully disrupt and subvert the typical understanding of art venues.

Introduction

Laura Põld (b.1984 in Tallinn, Estonia) is an Estonian artist living in Tallinn and Vienna. Her formal education includes the study of ceramics at the Estonian Academy of Arts (BA), painting at the University of Tartu (MA) and sculptural conceptions and ceramics at the University of Art and Design, Linz (MA). She is a Visiting Associate Professor of installation and sculpture at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), Tallinn, Estonia.

Her recent solo and duo exhibitions include: Translating and Co-labouring, (AV17) Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania (2023); Common Threads, Polar Bear and Elephant with Andres Tolts, Kogo Gallery, Tartu, Estonia (2022); Doing What They Do Best, Kunstraum Memphis, Linz, Austria (2021). Recent group exhibitions include: Down the Rabbit Hole, MO museum, Vilnius, Lithuania (2024), Emotional Landscapes, Arka Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania (2023); shelter – sanctuary, The Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM), Tallinn, Estonia (2023); Art in the Age of the Anthropocene, Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia (2023); (INTIMITÄT) Feelings are Facts, Kunstverein Eisenstadt, Austria (2023). Recent art fairs include: duo presentation with Anna Mari Liivrand at Esther Art Fair with Kogo Gallery, New York City, US (2024), Kassia I and Kassia II, solo presentation at Basel Social Club with Kogo Gallery, Basel, Swizerland (2024); Ways of Being, solo presentation at viennacontenporay 2023, Zone1 section with Kogo Gallery, Vienna, Austria (2023); Fibers in the Cave, solo presentation at Art Brussels with Kogo Gallery, Belgium (2023), Emotional Landscapes, duo presentation with Kristi Kongi at Liste Art Fair Basel with Kogo Gallery, Switzerland (2022).

Põld has been awarded a number of prizes and scholarships such as the Köler Prize Grand Prix (2016), the Grand Prize of The Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2018), the ISCP New York studio grant (2019) and the Claus Michaletz Preis (2021). Laura Põld is one of the recipients of the Estonian artist’s salary during 2023–2025.
Her works are in collections of Art Museum Bayreuth and European Central Bank Art Collection, Germany; Gmundner Keramik Collection, Austria; Art Museum of Estonia and Tartu Art Museum, Estonia; Zuzāns Collection, VV Foundation and Mark Rothko Centre, Latvia.

Works