Laura Parnes

Laura Parnes's multi-platform, lens-based projects craft loose narratives of trauma and repressed memory around mass-culture experiences and youthful rites of passage. Using historical, literary, and popular culture-based references, she addresses issues related to cultural production and societal malaise.

She has screened and exhibited widely in the U.S. and internationally, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, The International Film Festival Rotterdam, and Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia. Recently she had solo exhibitions at LAXART, Participant Inc., and solos screenings at the Wexner Center for the Arts and The Museum of Modern Art.

Parnes has taught and lectured at numerous institutions including Harvard University, Columbia University, UCLA, and Yale University. She currently teaches in the M.F.A. departments at Parsons and SVA and is a visiting artist at Bard College. She received her B.F.A. from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University.

Academic Research/Specialty Areas

  • Digital media
  • Film/video/sound
  • Installation art
  • Interdisciplinary art
  • Performance art
  • Photography
  • Sculpture
  • Technology and art

Related News

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

  • MacDowell Artist in Residency (2020)
  • Yaddo Artist in Residency (2019)
  • Creative Capital Awardee (2016)
  • NYFA Fellow (2014)
  • John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellow (2013)

Exhibitions and Presentations (Selected)

  • Tour Without End, (upcoming), solo installation with performance, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn (2021)
  • Tour Without End, solo screening, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus (2019)
  • An Evening with Laura Parnes, solo screening, The Museum of Modern Art, New York City (2012)

Publications (Selected)

  • Barber, Stephanie and Parnes, Laura. "The Punk Version of Mrs. Dalloway; Laura Parnes Interviewed by Stephanie Barber," BOMB Magazine, New York City, NY, October 30, 2018.
  • Parnes, Laura. "Blood and Guts in Hollywood: Four Works by Laura Parnes," a DVD box set published by Video Data Bank, Chicago, IL, 2014.
  • Parnes, Laura. "Blood and Guts in Hollywood: Two Scripts by Laura Parnes," introduction by Chris Kraus, PARTICIPANT PRESS, New York City, NY, 2009.

Selected Work

  • Film screened in a dark mostly empty room of a person dressed in white wading out into water.

    Tour Without End (2020), installation view, mixed media.

  • Silver wrinkled fabric hanging on a dark white wall in a room with dark carpet, bean bag, and one person looking at a small screen in corner.

    Tour Without End (2020), installation view, mixed media.

  • Fourteen images stacked together of various people in different poses and backgrounds.

    Tour Without End (2020), installation view, mixed media. Photos by Justine Kurland.

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