The Sea Around Us is a solo exhibition by Boston-based Michele Lauriat. In this Gallery 263 Exhibition Proposal Series show, Lauriat presents large-scale, experimental drawings of real, fictional, and imagined landscapes that call attention to environmental concerns.

This exhibition juxtaposes two bodies of work. One body is based on the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Wells, Maine. The drawings from the Rachel Carson series express a subtle unease, primarily through colors that could imply sunset, but also might imply something disastrous. The other body of work, Water Study, is based on first-hand, observed, fictional, and imagined interactions with open water. In the Water Study series are several large-scale solo wave drawings that are mostly an amalgamation of waves from surfing videos and natural disaster documentaries. This body of work is also influenced by waves found in movies and informed by Lauriat’s experience of getting caught in a rip tide.

Evoking Rachel Carson’s name and using a title from one of her books as the exhibition’s namesake highlights the artist’s concerns about the environment. Rising waters, polluted waters, shrinking waters, and damaging waters are all implied in this exhibition, alongside refreshing and life giving waters. With visceral drawings that feature detailed and repetitive mark making, awe and anxiety coincide.

About the Artist

Michele Lauriat is a 2020 Massachusetts Cultural Council Painting Fellow and a 2015 Gallery 263 Artist in Residence. She earned her BFA in 2002 at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and her MFA in 2011 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Michele was a Grant Wood Fellow in Painting and Drawing at the University of Iowa. Michele has participated in Artist Residencies at Zion National Park and Grand Canyon National Park. Michele’s work is part of the collections at the Fitchburg Art Museum in Massachusetts and the Bates College Museum of Art in Lewiston, Maine. Michele is an adjunct professor at Boston College and Massachusetts College of Art. Recent exhibitions include Drawings from the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, a solo exhibition at L/A Arts in Lewiston, Maine and Passing the Edge, a three-person exhibition at the Fort Point Artist Community Summer St Gallery in South Boston. Michele is currently pursuing grants to travel to Japan, Portugal, and Mount St. Helens.

Press

Art Spiel Picks: Boston Exhibitions in September 2024 by Andrew Fish for Art Spiel

Michele Lauriat’s summer vibes at Gallery 263 don’t skip lurking presence of climate change by Claire Ogden for Cambridge Day