ARTIST STATEMENT
As a maker I like to experiment with a variety of media. With each project my tools and techniques are often different but my main approach is the same, to rely heavily on spontaneity and intuition. I am liberally involved in painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, installation, collecting, and archiving. Often I do not have a solid plan for the work so I use visual and emotional memory to determine the direction it will take. This element of chance is quite dominant, which makes the doing of it very exiting and nerve-wracking at the same time. The most important element of my process is the assumption that my subconscious mind has something to say and I have the technical skills to coax it into existence. I count on it.
BIO
Born in Oyster Bay New York, Linda LaBella is a painter, printmaker, archivist, naturalist and birder. She has been featured in solo exhibits at Bert Green Fine Art, In Chicago and Los Angeles; The Wallach Gallery at SUNY, New York and the Galería de Arte Moderno, Guadalajara, MX. Select juried exhibits include Spring/BreakNYC; SOHO20, NYC; The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY; Kentler International Drawing Center, Brooklyn, NY; The Masur Museum, LU; The Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; The University of Notre Dame, Indiana and the Contemporary Art Center of Guadalajara, MX.
Ms. LaBella was awarded a full tuition scholarship to Stanford University where she earned her MFA and was teaching assistant to Bay-Area painters Nathan Oliveira and Frank Lobdell. She also holds an MA from California State University at Sacramento, where she worked with renowned St. Louis painter, Oliver Jackson.
After graduating Stanford she moved to Guadalajara, Mexico and taught painting and printmaking at the Instituto Cultural Cabañas and art history at the Tecnológico de Monterrey. In a cultural exchange that lasted three and a half years Ms. LaBella acquired new printmaking techniques, learned the Spanish language, and practiced horsemanship and Dressage.
Returning to the US, Ms. LaBella was given a summer Printmaking Casual Residency at CW Post College and taught printmaking and drawing at the Brooklyn Museum. She held a residency to the Keyholder Program at the Lower Eastside PrintShop and has exhibited widely. Today she makes art in her Tribeca studio, NYC.