Louise LaplanteClick on image for an enlargement and additional information.
Artist Statement
I was raised in a household that reveled in its past, spending may hours listening to my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles talk about their childhoods. They created many images for me in their tales of eccentric neighbors, relatives visiting from These pictures faded as I grew up but a few years ago, prompted by reading a group of 19th century letters I purchased on a whim, that same creation of visual elements to add to the words I read prompted the work I am now engaged in. My paintings and drawings incorporate my love of old paper, both printed and hand written along with my interest in the past and its relevance to the present. I use old letters, documents, books and images to create images that explore the concerns, cares and boundaries of our ancestors and how they have stayed much the same. Each drawing is done in two stages. I select and collage the paper, then create a motif to place on that sheet. The selection of the image is suggested by the words on the sheets I have used to form the ground. The resulting may be ironic, humorous or nostalgic. My panels refer back to the tradition of memory boxes or scrapbooks each assembled from dissimilar materials related only through the decision of the individual creating that page or encasing those elements behind glass in a frame. The sheets collaged as background are selected because they refer to the same or similar ideas or concepts. He surface is blurred with whitewash, the way memories are blurred by distance and the elements of the image assembled on that ground. This assembly of materials broadens the idea of “painting” beyond the brush stroke and brings it closer to the layering that is more reflective of the mind’s process of memory making. The surface is encaustic, used as the final collaged element, to act as the “preservative” what is underneath, and to provide that final blurring of the image.
Artist Bio
Exhibitions 2010 Here and Gone: Presence, Absence, Memory and Time, Amy H. Carberry Fine Art Gallery, Springfield Technical Community College, Springfield, Massachusetts 2009 Dreamscape, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York 2008 Small ’08, Wunderarts Gallery, Amherst, Massachusetts Interaction: Louise Laplante and Liz Chalfin, Wunderarts Gallery, Amherst Massachusetts Artists and Books, Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, Massachusetts One Night, Pivot Gallery, Florence, Massachusetts 2007 20 Artists, 2 Feet, Wunderarts Gallery, Amherst, Massachusetts Biennial 2007, New Hampshire Art Institute, Manchester, New Hampshire Salon, Clark Gallery, Lincoln, Massachusetts 2006 Small: 20 Artists X 2 Feet, Wunderarts Gallery, Amherst, Massachusetts Salon, Clark Gallery, Lincoln, Massachusetts 2004 On Paper, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York Encaustics, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York New Acquisitions, University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 2003 Reopening Exhibition, Hart Gallery, Northampton, Massachusetts 2002 The Belles of Amherst; Contemporary Women Artists in the Collection of the Mead Art Museum and the University Gallery, Mead Art Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts 1998 Vessels: Louise Laplante & David Powers, Hart Gallery, Northampton, Massachusetts Ten Women, Whistler House Museum of Art, Lowell, Massachusetts 1997 Self Portraits, Hart Gallery, Northampton, Massachusetts 1996 Painting Now, Bristol Art Museum, Bristol, Rhode Island Louise Laplante, Milton Art Museum, Milton, Massachusetts 1995 New Work: Louise Laplante, St. Germaine Gallery, Springfield, Massachusetts Drawings: Louise Laplante, Newspace Gallery, Manchester, Connecticut Small Works, Pump House Gallery, Hartford, Connecticut 1994 Sesquicentennial Celebration, Rice Gallery, Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, New York Two Artists, Cuneen-Hackett Cultural Center, Poughkeepsie, New York Large Drawings – Louise Laplante, Canal Gallery, Holyoke, Massachusetts 1993 Louise Laplante, Geissler Gallery, Greenfield, Massachusetts Drawing Now, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, Massachusetts 1992 Louise Laplante, Pindar Gallery, New York, New York Louise Laplante and Margaret Plaganis, Pump House Gallery, Hartford, Connecticut 1991 Small Objects, Nicole C. Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts The Changing World, Pindar Gallery, New York, New York Louise Laplante New Work, Nicole C. Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts 1989 New Artists: Gloria Winchler Memorial Exhibition, Currier Gallery, Manchester, New Hampshire Figures and faces, Gary Wortzel Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts Louise Laplante, Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts 1988 Paperworks, Clary-Miner Gallery, Buffalo, New York Small But Monumental, Hera Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island 1987 The Subject is Water, Newport Art Museum, Newport, Rhode Island 1986 American Contemporary Women Artists, Gallery Triangle, Washington, DC 1985 Louise Laplante, The Gallery, Springfield Tech Community College, Springfield, Massachusetts Louise Laplante Works on Paper, Hampshire College Gallery, Amherst, Massachusetts 1984 Works on Paper, F.A.C.E.T., Taos, New Mexico Works on Paper, 100% Realart Gallery, Spokane, Washington 1983 Louise Laplante, Springfield Central Gallery, Springfield, Massachusetts Rope, Drawings by Louise Laplante, Main Street Gallery, Amherst, Massachusetts Women Artists, Herter Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 1982 Two Artists Drawing, Gallery on Paper, Lenox, Massachusetts Artists Self Portraits, Pratt gallery, Amherst, Massachusetts Small Works, Passepartout Gallery, Winooski, Vermont Valley Artists ’82, The Gallery, Amherst, Massachusetts 1981 Invitational, Danco Gallery, Florence, Massachusetts Bibliography “Louise Laplante: Here and Gone”, Paul Bloomfield, Art New England, April/May 2010 “Burge, King, Laplante and Hammond at Haddad Gallery”, Hudson-Catskill Newspapers, Hudson, New York, November 8, 2009 “On Paper”, Daily Freeman, Kingston, New York, July 2, 2004 “The Belles of Amherst” Contemporary Women’s Art on View”, The Women’s Times, Northampton, Massachusetts, August 2002 “Two Artists, Shared Approach”, Gloria Russell, The Sunday Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, August 2, 1998 “Parker Gallery, Whistler House Museum of Art, Ten Women”, Ellin Anderson, Art New England, June/July 1998 “Art by “Ten Women””, Ellin Anderson, The Haverhill Gazette, Haverhill, Massachusetts, March 19, 1998 “Variety in Whistler’s “Ten Women””, Otto Peter Erbar, The Lowell Sun, Lowell, Massachusetts, March 8, 1998 “Faces of Art” Anne-Gerard Flynn, The Springfield Times Union, Springfield, Massachusetts, May 5, 1997 “Canal Gallery”, Gloria Russell, The Sunday Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, March 8, 1994 “Six University at Albany Graduates at Rice Gallery”, The Daily Gazette, Albany, New York, January 20, 1994 “At BCE Drawings Droll to Dramatic”, Christine Temin, The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, September 29, 1993 “Gloria Winchler Memorial Exhibition”, catalog essay by Marilyn F. Hoffman and Michael K. Komanecky, The Currier Gallery, Manchester, New Hampshire, 1989 “Art Scene: Louise Laplante” catalog interview by Martha Hoppin, Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1989 “Thinking Through Your Art”, Patricia Wright, The Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, Massachusetts, March 29, 1989 “Art Scenes Offer Powerful Images”, Gloria Russell, The Sunday Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, March 12, 1989 “Small is Beautiful”, Bill van Siclen, The Providence Journal, Providence, Rhode Island, February 12, 1986 “STCC/Springfield: Louise Laplante”, Art New England, November/December, 1985 “STCC/Louise Laplante”, Gloria Russell, The Sunday Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts September 29, 1985 Collections Kingsley and Company, San Francisco, California Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts University Gallery, SUNY Albany, Albany, New York Private collections Awards 2008 Recipient, Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund 2004 Finalist, Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists Grants, Drawing/Printmaking/Artist Books 1998 Finalist, Blanche E. Colman Award Education MA in Fine Art, State University of New York at Albany, New York BFA, College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, New York Galleries Carrie Haddad, Hudson, New York Wunderarts, Amherst, Massachusetts Clark Art Gallery, Lincoln, Massachusetts |