Laurie Skantzos

Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Laurie Skantzos creates abstract “wall sculptures” with a minimalist vibe using oil, cold wax and acyrlic on shaped plywood.

Laurie’s contemporary, process driven painting is largely inspired by the interactions of colour, shape and application. She was born in Toronto and studied fine art at the University of Waterloo. She has been an active member of the art community for over twenty years, regularly participating in shows such as the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair and International Art Fairs in London, Seoul, New York , Hamburg and Hong Kong. Laurie’s work is included in private and public collections across North America, Europe and Asia. She works from her studio in Guelph Ontario.

Laurie Skantzos is intrigued by the formal vocabulary of painting; the interaction of shapes, colours and lines, the materiality of paint, and the myriad ways they coalesce. Over time, she has come to regard painting both as an act – a dedicated practice she inhabits – and as a destination; a place that feeds her intellectual curiosity and her artistic spirit. Laurie is endlessly fascinated by the way an idea that is at first intangible, becomes material through the act of making. She is also intrigued by how the creative process (and its dance of trial and error, accident and edit) can offer new directions or different resolutions from previous work.

During the past couple of years, the development of this body of mostly intimately sized wall sculptures has acted as a form of meditation and self-awareness. Laurie found over time that she could lose herself in the creation of each piece, while steadying her mind and emotions in colour play and paint application. Art is an integral part of Laurie’s life - both creating it as well as admiring the work of others past and present.