“These are uncertain times and I meticulously explore the mechanisms and peculiarities of human cognition in response to that uncertainty. I build custom furniture and objects, ergonomically designed to play subtly yet directly upon the expectations of the viewer and to create an immersive experience of heightened awareness and disquiet. Through use of light, volume and objects, I obscure and highlight specific elements, transforming space to object and object to void, tampering with the viewer’s comfort zone and method of processing information. This tests the limits of human perception and cognition, catalyzing curiosity for mixed feelings of attraction and unease. I am interested in the cool tension that results from the efforts of the mind to create connections between disparate elements before they are understood. Scientists refer to these cognitive phenomena as apophenia.”
Laura Fritz is an award winning and critically lauded installation and video artist originally hailing from Chicago. She has exhibited at the Des Moines Art Center, Aljira Contemporary Art Center, Reed College, PNCA and NAAU. Fritz studied art at Drake University where she pursued both jewelry and painting. This was at a time that intermedia installation art were not in the curricula. On Drake's campus she began to explore an interest in the mysterious and was struck by the stark volumes of a Mies van der Rohe building, which later influenced the design of her furniture and installations. After moving to Portland in the mid 90's, she began to utilize the psychological effects of dark furniture forms, light and objects that seemingly embody uncertainty. After a string of critically acclaimed exhibitions at SOIL (Seattle), Reed College and Soundvision (Portland), and large scale group exhibitions including Core Sample, she was awarded one the New American Art Union's innovative Couture stipend awards. Her last solo exhibition in Portland (Entorus, 2012) was noted by critic Peter Plagens in the Wall Street Journal. She has just been awarded a 2014 Oregon Arts Commission fellowship in the visual arts.
