Laura Borneman, “Varied Perspectives,” June 23-August 4, 2017

Exhibition Catalog, Colleen McCubbin Stepanic and Laura Borneman

Varied Perspectives investigates structure based on architectural forms. Like McCubbin Stepanic, Borneman begins with observational drawings and paintings. Rather than building objects from two-dimensional images, Borneman reduces the initial drawings, creating new forms that only allude to the physical world. She follows her personal impulses, moving away from logic and order of visual representation, replacing objectivity with a more intuitive manner of thinking and working.

The sculptures build on the analysis embedded in the drawings, taking cues from the line, shadows, light, and implied depth. Some function as delicate skeletal frameworks, hovering above, yet relying on, the intricate shadows they create. Others recall dilapidated domestic structures or improvised shacks. Covered with a variety of materials, including the clearly recognizable Target logo, these structures are equally familiar and fantastical. Territories includes over 140 small house structures coated in wax and affixed directly to the wall. Although the orthogonal grid is clearly visible behind the structures, each is placed in an intentionally imperfect way. This instillation seems to capture both the individual architectural structures, as well as the community they seem to represent, as apparitions, floating between real and imagined experiences of the artist and the viewer.

Laura Borneman was born and raised in Buffalo. She completed undergraduate work at Buffalo State College and continued her education at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. She completed graduate degrees in Art and Education at SUNY at Buffalo, Western Michigan University, and the Maryland Institute College of Art. She currently teaches part-time at Erie Community College, Niagara County Community College, and Buffalo State College. Borneman has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions across the United States including California, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New York.