Laura Parnes

Laura Parnes is an artist whose work engages strategies of narrative film and video art to blur the lines between storytelling conventions and experimentation. Parnes combines elements such as continuity and dialogue with highly stylized sets and performances to present non-linear narratives as installations that utilize the architectural space of a gallery or museum. By deploying cinematic citation as an element of site-specific installation, the staging of her own productions reverberates in an exhibition setting, often requiring the audience to physically enter a scripted environment or re-creation of the production set. Parnes' installations operate at a symbolic and sculptural level, while maintaining a narrative coherence that points to a future in which reality is tightly nested in layers of art, popular culture, and experience.

Laura Parnes has screened and exhibited her work widely in the US and internationally, including Light Industry, NY; Turin GLBT Film Festival, Italy; Schroeder Romero, NY; Kusthalle Winterhur, Switzerland; Sara Meltzer Gallery, NY; Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany; Cinematexas, Austin, TX; Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley Art Museum, CA; John Connelly Presents, NY; Vtape, Toronto; Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius, Lithuania; Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand; PS1 Contemporary Art Center, NY; Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, FL; and Brooklyn Museum, NY.

Her solo exhibitions include Alma Enterprises, London; Locust Projects, Miami; Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, LA; Participant Inc, NY; Deitch Projects, NY; and in a two-person screening at the Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Parnes has been awarded residencies including the Sally and Don Lucas Artists Programs at the Montalvo Arts Center; the Wexner Center; Cuts and Burns Residency at The Outpost; and Harvestworks. Her work has received the support of the Experimental Television Center and the New York State Council on the Arts. Parnes has held teaching positions at New York University, The New School, and is currently a visiting critic at Yale University in the graduate Painting Department, and visiting faculty at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) in the graduate department of Photographic and Electronic Media. She received her BFA from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.