Artist Laura Malone is seeking the essence of beauty in her work. The beauty that resides within the intimacy of the human experience in all its complexities, both joyfully received and unwelcome.
Malone says that in one way or another, her work is always about embodiment—of mood, of connection to others, of the gestures of body language, even her own as she moves paint across a surface; her painting, Camille with Veil, an example of these elements. It’s no wonder that Malone makes her living as a somatic therapist, her art is a reflection of the layers of human intimacy.
“This practice is about listening to the body as a source of wisdom and engaging it as a resource for resilience and responsibility. I needed a way to make money that would add energy to my art practice rather than depleting me. Working with others keeps my heart open and informs my artwork subconsciously,” Malone told 48hills.
Malone grew up in Tucson, Arizona, but couldn’t wait to leave the dry climate for “a juicier, greener one.” A memory from childhood spurred her to move to the Bay Area.
“I remember the first time I saw a river, I was eight years old and with my family on a visit to the Bay Area, which became a yearly summer ritual. I would announce every time that this was where I was going to live when I grew up. The emotional climate of my academic family was also dry and I think my child’s mind didn’t separate outside and inside—a theme that shows up repeatedly in my work,” Malone said.
Malone completed formal degrees at Oberlin College (BA, Creative Writing) and San Diego State University (MA, Educational Technology). When she first got to Oberlin, she had planned to major in art.
“I showed a professor my drawings and he said, ‘So what, you can draw the figure—nobody is doing that anymore.’ Young people are so impressionable. Defeated, I switched to the creative writing program where I thought I spoke a more modern language,” she said.
She had already signed up for a painting class, however, that she was required to finish. After painting a series of “frustrated, discouraged abstractions” that depressed her, a seminal moment arrived.
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“The teacher gave us an assignment to make a paper sculpture in which we were instructed to paint using only one color. I picked white because I wanted to see all its various shades. This teacher looked at my work-in-progress and said, ‘My God, you’re a born painter.’ I revealed that I was not pursuing art anymore, that I had switched to writing. He replied, ‘It will help your painting in the long run,’ and walked away. I held his feedback close to my heart for close to a decade before I picked up a brush again,” Malone said.
Malone also recalls telling a professor that she was going to move to the Bay Area after she finished her graduate work.
“He said, ‘Why would you want to do that? There are hundreds of Laura Malones up there!’ I said, exactly. I enjoy the political climate in the Bay Area as well as the literal one,” Malone said.
Immersed in art through her upbringing as the niece of American artist Richard Artschwager, Malone is primarily self-taught, though she has studied with artists Alex Kanevski, Jennifer Pochinski, Vincent Desiderio, Catherine Kehoe, and Judith Kruger in programs that include The New York Crit Club and The Alternative Art School in New York; Art Digger Lab; California College of the Arts in San Francisco and UC Berkeley Extension, among others. Speaking about the influence of growing up around Artschwager, Malone relates the lessons learned.
“While on the one hand it could be intimidating being related to someone so successful, it also taught me that it was both a meaningful way to live and possible to be recognized and appreciated. It was my grandmother who taught me to paint, as she had previously taught him. A Ukrainian immigrant, she came from a long line of patrons of the arts,” Malone said.
Malone currently lives in the Oakland hills near the Mormon Temple. She’s been a member of Mercury 20, an artist-run gallery in Oakland, since 2023. She says she appreciates having people who share her creative experience to whom she can turn to for resources and advice.
“At Mercury 20, we each have roles that contribute to the running of the business and I believe our shows provide a valuable contribution to the community. Being able to regularly connect directly with people who visit the gallery is really inspiring. I’ve had people see things in my work that I hadn’t recognized,” Malone said.
She is also appreciative of artists in her studio collective who provide useful insights and feedback, nourishing her creative experience.
“It’s satisfying to go to shows with another artist because we tend to look at the work not just in terms of meaning and impact but also understanding process,” she said.
Malone co-founded a local discussion group where a living female artist is selected each month to study. She counts it as another vital link to the art community and says it keeps her accountable to her practice. Along with a slew of figurative painters of the 20th century, Malone notes a primary influence on her work in artist Cecily Brown.
“I remember the first time I saw a painting of hers in Glamour Magazine of all places. My jaw fell to the floor. I loved the unabashed sexuality in her work and her painting, Hoodlum, is still tacked to my refrigerator door as a reminder that it is possible to resolve chaos into beauty,” she said.
Malone says that a figure drawing class that she took with Michael Markowitz in San Francisco was transformative as well.
“His approach was not to try to draw the model, but to allow yourself to respond without intention—to let your ego get out of the way and allow what would come through. I think the work I did with him is maybe the best thing I’ve ever done. It was more than being ‘in the zone.’ I’m talking about total loss of self,” Malone said.
A day in the studio is varied for Malone, who says she doesn’t follow regulated methods or materials.
“I am too much of an aesthetic vagabond for that,” she said.
After working for years in oils on linen which were both planned and improvisational, she grew restless and curious and began working with other surfaces and materials: mixed media on organza fabric; spray paint on graphic film; layered Duralar (a transparent plastic) with various media from acrylic, alcohol ink, and oil paint. Some of her works still incorporate the figure but more abstractly. Her piece, Rondo, is an example of this exploration.
Recently, Malone has been forced to work sitting on the couch during recovery from major knee surgery, working with pencils and water-based markers.
“This has really been something to reckon with. I am learning to stop fighting the materials and let them tell me what they want to do. A work is done when something settles, when nothing’s wrong anymore,” Malone said.
In 2020, Malone completed a series of paintings called, Human Ground, about holding the bad and the good together at the same time.
“The series was full of images of death but the way it was painted was beautiful, so that the viewer was asked to experience both at the same time,” she said.
Nowadays, she is less inclined to paint the dark side of things because of the declining state of the world but recognizes that it always “seeps subtly into the background and between the lines.” A recent show, Bodies of Water, Bodies of Light, depicts joyful women in the water, many of them older, which has segued into new work about ageing.
“This series focuses on nude older couples in sensual embrace. In my opinion ageism is the last ‘ism’ that hasn’t been addressed, and of course I’m painfully conscious of this as I get older. It’s very hard to learn to love a body that society rejects,” she said.
Malone invited a friend in her 60s to pose for her, creating dozens of images as a starting point for work to be included in the group show, Forever Young, at Studio Shop Gallery in Burlingame, September 1-30.
“I prompted her to find her inner ‘screw you I’m old and I’m still sexy or gorgeous’ (she is!) and we got so high on the fun of it all,” Malone said.
In addition, her solo show at Mercury 20 will run from October 10 to November 15, focusing on older work she created during the pandemic, primarily from a series called The Veil.
“The series investigates the feminine. There was a particular model I was drawn to because she was so in her body. While observing her posing with a scarf, I became interested in the moments when she was moving into a pose, moments more dynamic and authentic than the pose itself. I also witnessed her process of discovering what the veil brought out in her relationship to herself . . . blurring the lines between inner experience and outer world” Malone said.
A show is slated for Cedar Street Gallery in Berkeley, from December 14 through January 10, 2026. And Malone will have another solo show at Mercury 20 from September 11—October 17, 2026, that will honor her mother who died at the age of 98 last November. In an exploration of compassion, impermanence and fragility, it will be a departure from previous work, integrating new materials and developing an installation that uses a variety of approaches to portraiture, from video to abstraction.
As artist Laura Malone continues to evolve her work, she hopes that viewers will be touched by the humanity in her paintings and recognize the suffering and the joy of the human condition.
“I’ve found my own sanctity in beauty, first with nature, and then with brush in hand. It’s a refuge for me in this sometimes-miserable world and it doesn’t take much to be elevated by beauty… the swoop of a hawk through my garden, the lapis-colored iris that blooms for only a day,” Malone said. “It’s also the tender expression hidden in the crease of someone’s eyes, or the delicate contour of a breast. I try to hold—and to paint—both the good and the terrible together. I invite viewers to do the same.”
For more information, visit her website lauramaloneart.com and on Instagram.
