Laura Põld
Laura Põld is an interdisciplinary artist from Estonia, combining various means of artistic expression such as sculpture, textile, ceramics, video, and photography. The artist works with diverse territories of pictorial terrain and philosophical or poetic texts that influence her thinking about the matter and the making of her objects and spatial installations. Põld’s works are like peculiar landscapes of stories or spaces, where the mind can visually wander to the forest, the hills, the mines, or even to the artist’s studio. While traveling and collaborating with other creatives, Põld explores multiple human and more-than-human societal customs, which she incorporates into her work. The artist carefully chooses the materials based on their agency and historical context. Using traditional techniques such as ceramics or rug-making, Põld blurs the boundaries between modernity and archaic life. Her recent works highlight the topics of intimacy, and the search for a place in the world, as well as the ecological subtexts, the relationship between man and nature, and the ethics thereof.
Estonian artist Laura Põld (b. 1984) in her practice weaves together natural, context-specific, crafty and interdisciplinary elements. She studied ceramics at the Estonian Academy of Arts (BA), painting at the University of Tartu (MA) and sculptural conceptions and ceramics at the University of Art and Design Linz (MA). Laura Põld has been awarded a number of prizes and scholarships such as the annual prize of The Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2014), Köler Prize Grand Prix (2016), the grand prize of The Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2018), the ISCP New York studio grant (2019) and the Claus Michaletz Preis (2021). The artist is currently based in Tallinn and Vienna.
Born 1984 in Tallinn, Estonia
Living and working in Vienna and Tallinn
Education
2018 – 2021 The University of Art and Design Linz, Department of Sculptural Conceptions and Ceramics
2007 – 2010 University of Tartu, Department of Painting, MA
2003 – 2007 Estonian Academy of Arts, Department of Ceramics, BA
Member of Estonian Ceramists’ Association since 2018
Member of Tartu Artists’ Union since 2011
Member of Estonian Artists’ Association since 2010
Solo and duo exhibitions
2020 Living / Making Rituals. An Exhibition at Home, Vienna Art Week Open Studios 2020 program, Vienna, Austria
2020 Shedding Skin, Laura Põld / Piret Karro, Gallery Vaal, Tallinn, Estonia
2020 Beautiful Necessity, Eva Volmerson / Laura Põld, ARS Showroom, Tallinn, Estonia
2020 Denial, Laura Põld / Katrin Väli, Tartu Art House, Tartu, Estonia, curated by Peeter Talvistu
2019 Burrows. Flights, Katrin Väli / Laura Põld, Gallery Hobusepea, Tallinn, Estonia
2018 Artists in Collections: Laura Põld x Kunda Cement Museum, Kunda, Estonia, curated by Maarin Ektermann and Mary Talvistu
2017 So small it could be mine, Atelierhaus Höherweg e. V., Düsseldorf, Germany
2016 Laura Põld / Johna Hansen. Serving Makes Place. Gallery Maebashi Works, Japan
2016 Laura Põld / Johna Hansen. Awilda on a drift. Fireboat Tripitaka, Christianshavn, Copenhagen, Denmark
2016 Hundreds of Illusions Charted as Land, Tartu Art Museum, Estonia, curated by Peeter Talvistu
2015 Road To Silver Mine, Gallery Chemin du Bonheur, Hokuto-shi, Yamanashi, Japan
2014 The Night Your Mate Danced Like A Tree, Gallery Hobusepea, Tallinn, Estonia
2014 Laura Põld / Titania Seidl. a walk, a wall, some mountains, Showroom Galerie Hrobsky, Vienna, Austria
2014 Ruins, Tartu Art House, Monumental gallery, Tartu, Estonia
2014 To go to bed by day, Kunstkabinett Kunstverein Bayreuth, Germany
2014 Castle, Gallery Vaal, Tallinn, Estonia
2013 Sigita Daugule / Laura Põld, Galerie Ulrike Hrobsky, Vienna, Austria
2013 Attempts to stage a landscape, Tallinn Art Hall Gallery, Tallin, Estonia
2012 Carolina Cyclone, Showroom for Young Art, Galerie Ulrike Hrobsky, Vienna, Austria
2011 Lost & Found, Tallinn City Gallery, Estonia
2010 Conversations with a Curtain, Tartu Art House, Estonia
2010 Adrijana Gvozdenovič / Laura Põld, Hope You Dance, bm:ukk exhibition space, Vienna, Austria
Selected group exhibitions
2020 Revive, an online exhibition focused on the relationship between ecology and human activity, homepage of Tartu Art House, curated by Sarah Michelle Cook
2020 6×2=75, Galerie Atelierhaus Salzamt, Linz; Ceramic Dimension, EKA Gallery, Tallinn
2020 XX Kohila Symposium, Gallery 125, ARS Art Factory, Tallinn
2020 Ceramic Laboratory. 8th International Ceramic Art Symposium, Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre and Latvian Centre for Contemporary Ceramics
2019 ISCP Fall Open Studios, Studio #211, ISCP, New York, USA
2019 Beings with, Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale, curated by Jenni Nurmenniemi, Fiskars, Finland
2019 Bitter waters to reach the sweet, Alte Schieberkammer, Vienna, Austria
2019 What keeps me, Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design Staircase gallery, curator Pille Kaleviste, Tallinn, Estonia
2018 Ascending from the Liquid Horizon, Le Lieu Unique, Nantes, France, curator Kati Ilves
2018 How to: Live. Virtual Biographies, EKKM, Tallinn, Estonia, curator Marika Agu
2018 Lola Liivat. Spiritual resistance, Tartu Art Museum, Estonia, curator Hanna-Liis Kont
2018 Everyday Witchcraft, Kogo gallery, Tartu, Estonia, curator Merilin Talumaa
2018 Contemporary Art from Estonia, ECB, Frankfurt, Germany, curator Britta von Campenhausen
2018 Borderline, Valga Museum, Estonia, curator Peeter Talvistu
2018 A Hole in the Grey Curtain, Treignac Projet, Treignac, France, curator Sam Basu
2018 No Reptiles, Justice, Vienna, Austria, curator Sebastian Mittl
2018 Elisabeth Altenburg / Nahid Behboodian / Laura Põld, Gallery Atelierhaus Salzamt Linz, Austria
2017 MUSAO, Masc Foundation, Vienna, Austria
2017 Estonian Photographic Art Fair, Telliskivi Creative City, Tallinn, Estonia
2017 Instra-Structures – Monster of the Seven Lakes, Treignac Projet, France, curator Jussi Koitela
2017 Structured Frustrations, CC. art space Isfahan, Esfahan, Iran, curated by Samira Hashemi
2016 Shiro Oni Studio, group IV 2016, Onishi Brewery, Gunma, Japan
2016 The Great Painter, curated by Liisa Kaljula. Evald Okas Museum, Haapsalu, Estonia
2016 Köler Prize 2016. Exhibition of Nominees, Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn, Estonia
2016 Sense of Place, Tallinn Art Hall gallery, Tallinn, Estonia
2015 Art Market Budapest, represented by Gallery Vaal, Budapest, Hungary
2015 New building, Tartu Art Museum, Tartu, Estonia
2015 Fucking Andy, Eden, Techno, Disco. Mo.ë space, Vienna, Austria
2014 New Material, The Museum of Contemporary Art of Estonia
2014 Exodus to verdure. Tartu 1860–2014, Tallinn Art Hall, curator Peeter Talvistu
2014 Tallinn – Carcassonne, Jesuit College and Chapel, Carcassonne, France
2013 Kunst in der Landschaft 9, Gut Gasteil, Prigglitz, Austria
2013 7. ICA, Art Without Borders, Kulmbach, Germany
2013 CHA-2013. The Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia
2012 Archaeology and the Future of Estonian Art Scenes, KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia
2012 Collection of Desires, Contemporary Estonian Art From Private Collections, Museum of Contemporary Art of Estonia
2012 Reproduktionen, Künstraum Zögernitz, Vienna, Austria
2012 7-Ateliers: exhibition and open studios, Showroom Ulrike Hrobsky, Vienna, Austria
2012 NordArt2012, Büdelsdorf, Germany
2012 NOT ONLY, Factory-Art Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2012 Collective Video Bohai @ Luminale Frankfurt 2012, Frankfurt, Germany
2012 TALLINZ, Atelierhaus Salzamt, Linz, Austria
2011 Young Painter Prize finalists 2011, Titanikas, Vilnius, Lithuania
2011 Estonian painting. Laura Põld, Maarit Murka, Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Old Town Art Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania
2011 The Family, März Project Space, Tallinn, Estonia
2011 Confrontations and Provocations. An Insight into Estonian Contemporary Art, National Museum of Warsaw, Poland and Contemporary Art Museum, Szczecin, Poland, curator Eha Komissarov
Grants/Awards
2019 – 2021 Artist laureate salary, Estonian Artists Association
2019 ISCP-EKKAK residency at ISCP, New York
2018 The Grand Prize in Visual and applied arts, Cultural Endowment of Estonia
2016 Köler Prize grand prix
2014 Annual award in Visual and applied arts, Cultural Endowment of Estonia
2013 Ado Vabbe prize
2011 Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts, Salzburg, Austria
2009 DoRa Scholarship
2008 Eduard Wiiralt’ Stipend
