About Laura Buitrago.
When Laura moved to the United States from her home country of Colombia at a young age, the culture shock lit a curiosity in her regarding the human condition. At the age of 12, she had deep fascination for the French language, so it was no surprise when Laura moved there after high school. She backpacked Europe soon after, always driven by wanting to understand local cultures and their philosophies of life. Laura eventually traveled to Southeast Asia, and after almost 5 months of living there, she completed a master's degree in International Cooperation and Development in Madrid, Spain. For her thesis, Laura did extensive
extensive research and held controversial interviews regarding the lack of coherence between ethical standards and in-the-field practice in the humanitarian aid and international development world. Needless to say, it was profoundly disappointing to learn of the overarching influence of politics and power in a world that needs the exact opposite.
The global pandemic arrived shortly after Laura got her degree. Confused about her place in the world, she decided to give her true passion a chance. Art became her therapy as she started to do a deep dive into her own shadow. Laura held one-on-one Zoom interviews with people interested in her work and created works of art that reflected our own mirrors. Turns out that all her life experiences eventually became the inspiration for a large body of work about our inner worlds.
Laura has shown in multiple galleries in Orlando and she is proud to say that most of her paintings have found a home, both in the US and abroad. She received the Individual Artist Grant from UnitedArts of Central Florida. This allowed her to take on her first solo show, an immersive installation titled "Thank You, Shadow, For Now I Am Free", that expanded her skills from painting alone onto textile, sound, and multimedia installations as well as sculpting and mold-making. The show involved old and new work created during her 2024-2025 1-year residency at Art & History Museums of Maitland, which emphasizes the freedom on the other side of our Shadow.
She is now continuing her exploration with a new series of paintings.