Exploring the domestication of travel, printmaker Lauren Abshire presents her audience with worlds permeated with the essence of nature yet removed from it by a drive to simplify and contain what cannot be controlled. In her digital, woodblock, and silkscreened prints Abshire invents fictional, topographical landscapes reduced to an abstract purity of line and form, mapping a visual language of place on bold fields of dark and light. The act of seeing frequently comes into play in Abshire’s creations, whether literally with interactive installations, or figuratively in the symbolic viewing devices which often appear in her art. As she enthralls viewers with her work, Abshire’s vision of a confused spatial reality offers a challenge to look beyond standard expectations and towards the futility of humanity’s quest for knowledge, showing that tools and information can become traps separating the individual from reality.
A native of Louisiana, Lauren Abshire received a Masters degree from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Since graduating her works have appeared in numerous solo and group exhibits throughout the U.S.