CV
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Artist's Statement
I sculpt metal, ceramic, wood, and glass into iconic and at times enigmatic forms that explore humankind’s relationship with nature. My work is influenced by a childhood split between rural Maine and New York City—an experience that inspired a profound interest in the dichotomy between communities in which people work close to nature, and the alienation of an urban, technological society. My sculptures explore and illustrate the parallels and interactions between these two worlds
Many of my finished artworks also acquire the form and function of tools. Tools are essential for a complete discussion about the process of making sculpture. They are the extensions of the human hand through which materials are manipulated and shaped, and they are the vehicles through which information can be unearthed. The tools we apply to nature—to contain it, shape it, understand it and categorize it—also have a profound affect upon it. It is this impetus to measure, understand, contain and manipulate nature that I enact through my work.
Exhibitions:
2012 Arkansas Art Center, The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of
Contemporary Craft, Ashville, North Carolina
2012 Ashville Art Museum, The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft, Ashville, North Carolina
2011 Browngrotta fine arts, Wilton CT, STIMULUS: art and its inception
2011 Bolinas Museum, Bolinas CA Two person show, Wolfgang Bloch & Lawrence LaBianca,
2011 Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft, Ashville, North Carolina
2010 Bolinas Museum, Bolinas CA, The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft, Ashville, North Carolina
2010 Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, Oakland, CA Lawrence LaBianca
and Esther Traugot,
2010 Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Mass, The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft
2010 Oakland Museum at City Center, Solo show, Oakland, CA
2009 Doug Adams Gallery Bade Museum, Berkeley, CA Mapping Sacred Ground
2009 The Cheese Factory, Petaluma, CA Terrior: A Sense of Place
2009 Nature (not as you’d expect), Gensler, Two Harrison St. San Francisco, CA
2008 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, Bay Area Now
2008 Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, Oakland, CA, Nature Study
2008 San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, CA, New West Coast Design
2007 Johansson projects, Oakland, CA, Two person show, Anatomy of Folklore
2007 Bedford Gallery, CA, Leaded: The Materiality and Metamorphosis of Graphite.
2007 Arts Benicia, CA, Looking Glass: seeing through the medium,
2007 Valladolid Sculpture Biennale, Spain
2007 Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Faithfully
2007 Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, CA, CCA: A Legacy in Studio Glass,
2006 Sculpture site Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Solo show
2006 California College of the Arts, Group Show
2006 California College of the Arts, A Family of Clay, CCA Ceramics 1950-2005,
2005 Andrea Schwartz Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Group show
2004 Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Solo show
2004 Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA, “a simple chair show”
2004 EDAW, San Francisco, CA, Group show
2002 Visual Perspectives: 14 Years of the Virginia A. Groot Awards, Chicago, juried show with catalog, Virginia Groot Foundation
2001 Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA, Group show
2000 Artisans Gallery, Mill Valley, CA, Group show,
2000 San Francisco Craft and Folk Museum, SF, Reliquaries for America
1999 Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA, Two person show
1999 Oakland City Hall, Oakland, CA, Group show
1999 Group juried show, Oliver Arts Center, Oakland, CA
1999 Artisans Gallery, Mill Valley, CA, Group show
1999 Dorothy Weiss Gallery, San Francisco, CA,Two person show,
1998 Bitters Gallery, Seattle, WA, Solo Show
1997 Two person show, DIVAN space SF, CA
1996 Solo Show, Bitters Gallery. Seattle, WA
1996 Solo Show, 21 Useful Objects (for getting there), WORKS Gallery, Sonoma, CA
1996 Magnolia Editions Gallery, San Francisco, CA April, Future Histories, Group show
1995 The Artery, Davis, CA, California Clay Competition
1995 Bitters Gallery, Seattle, WA, Solo Show
1994 SF Introductions at Dorothy Weiss Gallery, SF, CA
1994 Works Gallery, Sonoma, CA, Solo Show
1994 Southern Exposure Gallery Introduction shows, SF, CA
1994 Barclay Simpson Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA, Group show
AWARDS & HONORS
2012 Full Scholarship, Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle Wash.
2010 Artist in residence, Anderson Ranch Arts Center
2004 Scholarship, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass, Colorado
2000 Creative Work Fund, Collaborative Grant
2000 Virginia S Groot Foundation Grant for Sculpture
1999 Earnie Kim Award, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
1998 Full Scholarship, Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle Wash.
1994 Barclay Simpson Award
1993, ‘94 Full Scholarship, Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle Wash.
PERFORMANCE
2002 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts with Flyaway Productions, San Francisco, CA
2001 Theater Artaud with Project Bandaloop, San Francisco, CA
2001 Somarts with Flyaway Productions, San Francisco, CA
2000 Feb. Collaborative sculptures for dance, Strange Love ODC Theater, San Francisco, CA
1999 Collaborative sculpture with Joanna Haigood and Axis dance company, Yerba Buana Center for the Arts, SF, CA
1999 Feb. Collaborative sculptures for dance, The Body Project, Flyaway Productions, Theater Artaud, San Francisco, CA
1997 May Collaborative sculptures for dance, Fellow Travelers Dance Company, Bradey St. Center, San Francisco, CA
1995 Oct. Collaborative sculptures for dance, Catastrophe Practice, the Fellow Travelers Dance Company, The New School, SF, CA
1994 Fellow Travelers Dance Company, Theater Artuad, SF, CA
PUBLICATIONS
2010 Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft, THE NEW MATERIALITY, Fuller Craft Museum, Boston, Mass
2008 Catalogue, Yerba Buena Center For The Arts, BAN 5
2007 Catalogue, Bienal De Escultura, De Valladolid
2007 Catalogue, CCA: A Legacy in Studio Glass, San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design,
2005 Catalogue, LaBianca Recent Works 49pgs., Emily Raabe, Jeff Nathenson
2003 Visual Perspectives: 14 Years of the Virginia A. Groot Awards pg., 108-111
PRESS
2010 Anderson Ranch, In Residence: Lawrence LaBianca, November, 5
2010 The Providence Sunday Journal, Craft enters the digital age, July 11
2010 When handmade meets digital, sparks fly, Boston Sunday Globe, June 20
2010 The San Francisco Chronicle, Abstractionist’s art looks alive, Sept. 4
2008 Artweek, September 2008, v39 issue 7 ‘Bay Area Now 5’ at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, back page
2008 The Brooklyn Rail, Sept. 2008, Bay Area Now 5, Tessa DeCarlo
2008 Artweek, February 2008, ‘Looking Glass’ at Arts Benicia, Dewitt Chang
2008 San Francsico Chronicle, Wednesday, Oct. 1 What buildings say vs. unbuilt ideas, pg. G2, Zahid sardner
2008 San Francisco Bay Gaurdian, July 16-22, biennialmania, For regional survey exhibitions, It’s location, location, location, pg. 44 Stacy Martin
2008 San Francisco Bay Gaurdian, Wednesday, July 16, Doing it Naturally, Stacy Martin
2008 American Craft Magazine, Feb New West Coast Design: Contemporary Objects at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, Mija Riedel
2008 Berkeley Daily Planet, Thursday, August 14, San Francisco Triennal at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. pg
2008 East Bay Express, April 30, 2008, Nature Makes a Comeback, Three artists do field work in reality, Dewitt Chang
2007 San Francisco Chronicle, Thursday, November 22, Branching Out, ‘Anatomy of Folklore’ Using materials raw helps show relationship between human and nature
2006 Oct 19 San Francisco Chronicle, Sculptor-rock climber Lawrence LaBianca Retools Nature, Jesse Hamlin
2006 Aug SF Weekly, August 30-September 5, pg 35, Lea Feinstein
2006 Aug San Francisco Examiner, Weekend Edition, August 26-27, Tiffany Martini
2006 Aug SF Weekly, August 30-September 5, pg 35, Lea Feinstein
2004 July Travel and Leisure,
2003 Visual Perspectives: 14 Years of the Virginia A. Groot Awards
pg., 108-111
2001 June Review, Artweek, V. 32, p.12
2001 April SF Weekly, April 4-10, pg., 36
2000 Feb. Ceramics Monthly,
2000 Feb. San Francisco Bay Guardian, February 9, 2000, pg., 74
1994 Aug Review, Artweek, V. 25, p.17
DIGITAL PRESS
2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gApDhNILbdI
http://intheboatshed.net/2012/02/25/san-francisco-artist-lawrence-labianca-uses-the-light-trow-in-his-work/
http://norcal-musings.com/2012/03/25/lawrence-labianca/
http://arttextstyle.com/tag/lawrence-labianca/
http://laprincipessaerrante365.blogspot.com/2012/05/fort-mason-san-francisco-may-12-2012.html
2011
http://americancraftmag.org/article.php?id=11614
http://donaldfortescue.com/2011/02/11/lawrence-labianca-icon/
http://mam.org/exhibitions/details/new-materiality.php
http://www.bolinasmuseum.org/exhibition10095.html
http://artnewengland.com/ed_review/the-new-materiality-digital-dialogues-at-the-boundaries-of-contemporary-craft/
http://www.craftaustralia.org.au/library/review.php?id=digital_craft
http://craftcouncil.org/magazine/article/data-processing
http://craftcouncil.org/post/new-west-coast-design-contemporary-objects-san-francisco-museum-craft-design-through-april-27
http://americancraftmag.org/article.php?id=11614
http://americancraftmag.org/article.php?id=11614
2010
http://www.andersonranch.org/blog/2010/11/05/in-residence-lawerence-labianca/
http://www.fullercraft.org/_assets/FCM_The%20New%20Materiality.pdf
http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2010/06/20/when_handmade_meets_digital_sparks_fly/?sudsredirect=true
http://handfulofsalt.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/bay-area-designcraft-hero-lawrence-labianca/
http://museumca.org/exhibit/lawrence-labianca
2009
http://articles.sfgate.com/2006-10-19/entertainment/17317730_1_redwood-tree-half-dome-steel
http://www.sfbg.com/2008/07/16/doing-it-naturally
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-9276008/Sculptor-rock-climber-Lawrence-LaBianca.html
http://craftcouncil.org/post/new-west-coast-design-contemporary-objects-san-francisco-museum-craft-design-through-april-27
EDUCATION
MfA 1994 California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA, High Distinction
BA 1986 Department of Environmental Design, University of Colorado
NOLS 19890
EMPLOYEMENT
1999-Present Adjunct Professor, California College of the Arts
1994-Present Owner and Operator, Lawrence LaBianca Arch and Design
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