Spotlight Artist

Laurent Le Bel-Roux

MFA Annual
Artist profile photo

Snooper

Abstract painting with bold patches of orange, black, yellow, red, and blue on a textured surface.

acrylic, watercolor, oil paste, and photo transfer on canvas mounted on panel

Lotus

Abstract painting with textured layers of teal, yellow, black, and orange brushstrokes.

acrylic, watercolor, oil pastel, and photo transfer on canvas mounted on panel

Coast to Coast

Colorful abstract painting with bold brushstrokes in yellow, red, blue, and purple.

acrylic, watercolor, oil pastel, and photo transfer on canvas mounted on panel

Featured in New American Paintings1 / 3

Artist Statement

 My practice is grounded in an intuitive approach to painting and drawing. Through abstraction, I develop new visual languages that question the relationship between body and mind. Informed by phenomenological and semiotic considerations, my work investigates the interplay between sensory receptivity and cognitive interpretation. Themes such as transformation, memory, expression, and time emerge in the work as ways to reflect on the human condition and expand the frameworks through which we perceive and engage with our surroundings.

The concept of interference plays a central role, both as a visual phenomenon and a conceptual tool. It speaks to the filter of our subjectivity that shapes our perception and guides our interpretive capacities. The use of recurring motifs such as camouflage, grids, and meshes embodies this polarity between illusion and certainty, structure and fragmentation.

My creative process is rooted in an experimental engagement with materials where gestures are layered, erased, and fused. I navigate between intention and improvisation, introducing constraints and inviting serendipity to generate visual tension, while maintaining an openness to potentialities.

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