Biography
Artist Maria Lau conceives her artwork through an exploration in identity. Eloquently bridging conceptual and experiential methods of creating art, her focus is on the interrelation of Eastern and Western culture, based on her Cuban-Chinese heritage. Her artwork embodies an authentic fusion of cultures, history and personal narrative using photography as her major medium.
Originally a student of Latin American history and anthropology, Lau began using photography as a means of documentation and visually writing history. Her documentary basis began to vary in aesthetic and techniques that would transform Lau’s academic investigations into alternative fine art documentary.
Ms. Lau mixes formal and conceptual photography by creating works that reference history, memory and dream states while employing both traditional and digital photo techniques. Truly the core of Ms. Lau’s work is a unique layering style that shows the viewer multiple insights into the heart of each piece.
Working with film, she creates images through a technique of in-camera exposures, inviting the element of chance in the process. In her mixed media work and digital collages she employs alternative photo transfer techniques, and incorporates materials ranging from archival documents, calligraphy, pigments, video and audio as a means to illustrate her narrative.
Ms. Lau’s use of infrared film as a formal means of documentation scientifically executes a stylized alternative dream state. Manipulating seen and unseen light measurements, her black and white photographs record a grainy surface pattern that creates a dream like quality. Her color infrared works, expressed in saturated colors suggests a hyper reality while recording vitality in the landscape.
Within the realm of photography, Ms. Lau’s meticulous use of calculated chance, scientific guesswork, and contemplative investigations regarding her cultural and personal identity, creates artwork that is both a reflection of those investigations and the free form expression of fate.
Ms. Lau’s work can be found in private and permanent collections nationwide.