Artist Statement

My inquiry is grounded in the science of interoception: the subtle awareness of inner bodily sensations. I am fascinated by how our internal physical states ripple outward, coloring emotional landscapes and filtering our encounters with the world. I transform clay, glycerin, and found objects into an evolving vocabulary—each material a metaphor for tissue and cell, pulse and synapse, the layered interdependence of the body’s systems. Like the architecture of our own flesh, these forms rest in delicate tension, always contingent on one another for meaning and stability.

How do our bodies influence our minds? How does our corporeal wisdom shape our perception of the world? These questions are at the heart of my practice. Through the tactile processes of coiling, casting, and reassembling, I mirror the adaptive, playful negotiation between body and thought—inviting intuition to guide the emergence of each work and allowing the irrational to transcend the rational.

Laura Van Duren RESUME

www.lauravanduren.com

email: laura@lauravanduren.com

Selected Exhibitions

2025

Making Moves: A Collection of Feminism, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA

2024

A Question of Balance, Pacific Rim Sculptors, Museum of Sonoma County, Santa Rosa, CA

Solo Show, Revelers, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA

2023

Pyramid Scheme, Bass & Reiner Gallery, San Francisco, Ca.

Afterimage, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, Ca. Juror-Walter Maciel

Morphologies, Your Mood Gallery, San Francisco, Ca. Curator- Selby Sohn

2022

Cedar Street Gallery, Berkeley, Ca

Solo Exhibition, Gut Feeling , Transmission Gallery SF, San Francisco, CA

“did you make this, how long did it take?” Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, CA

In Tension, Incline Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Tap Roots: Art Educators of Northern California, Arts Benicia, Benicia, CA

2021

Constructed Ceramics, Applied Contemporary Gallery, Oakland, CA

XX@XV: 15th Anniversary, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland , CA

2020

Solo Exhibition, Drawn to Resilience, City College of San Francisco Art Gallery

Some Speachless Thing, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA Juror- Griff Williams

2019

Matter of Form, Shoh Gallery, Berkeley, CA, Curator- Christine Koppes

Art + Movement, GearBox Gallery, Oakland, CA, Curator- Maria Porges

2018

The Open Book Show V, Root Division, San Francisco, CA, Curator- Kate Laster

The Magic of Collaboration, Adobe Art Gallery, Castro Valley, CA, Curator- Leah Virsik

Room for Thought, Space 151, San Francisco, CA, Juried by Jack Fischer

2017

AbstrAction, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato, CA, Juried by Catherine Clark

Thesis Exhibition, San Francisco State University Fine Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2016

Celebrating 40 Years, An Exhibition from Peter Voulkos’ The Dome, Oakland, CA

2015

Stillwell, San Francisco State University Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2014

Sky, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA, Curated by DeWitt Cheng

2011

Transits and Returns: Alumni Show, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA

2010

Solo Exhibition, Not for Sale, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA

Twisted-Chiseled-Fired, Village Art Gallery, Danville, CA, Panel Discussion

2009

Solo Exhibition, Blue Sky, McCue Gallery 83, Orinda, CA

Las Cadre: Craft Masters, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA

Solo Exhibition, Confluence, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA

Meet the Ironkids, Studio Quercus, Oakland, CA

2008

Pequenitos: A Las Cadre Exhibition, Ruby's Clay Studio, San Francisco, CA

Solo Exhibition, The Dress Form Dialogues, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA,

2007

All Fired Up, City of Santa Clara Sculpture Exhibition, Santa Clara City Hall, CA

Sculpture in the Garden, Ruth Bancroft Garden, Walnut Creek, CA

Two-Person Exhibition, Two Worlds, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, CA,

2006

Mercury Rising, Tomlinson Gallery, Oakland, CA

100% Centennial: CFA Alumni Exhibition, Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

2006

Mischief, Cartoons, Characters & Critters, Studio Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2004

Speaking Figuratively, South Western College Art Gallery, Chula Vista, CA

2003

Two-Person Exhibition, Two Ways, Green Shutter Gallery, Hayward, CA

17th Annual Ceramic Sculpture Exhibition, UVSC Woodbury Gallery, Orem, UT

2002

30 Ceramic Sculptors, John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA

Biography

SF/Arts Monthly, Gallery Highlights, Article by Mark Taylor, September/October Issue

East Bay Express, “Ragged Wing Comes Home to Nest”, January,14, 2015, Sarah Burke

East Bay Express, “Going the Distance at Swarm, Royal Nonesuch, and Mercury 20”, May 18, 2011, Dewitt Cheng

Contra Costa Times, “Laura Van Duren Creates Art to Share”, September 15, 2010, Andrea Firth

Education

2017 MFA, Sculpture, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA

1981 BFA, Studio Art, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA