Lawre Stone

July 7 - August 1, 2022

About “The Silvery Water and the Starry Earth”

Stone says, “I’m always looking to integrate ideas from art history into my work, especially the history of abstraction.  This piece takes its title from an illustrated alchemical treatise by the 10th century scholar and alchemist Muhammad Ibn Umayl.  Alchemists believed that 3 natural elements: sulphur, mercury and salt, could be combined through transmutation, to produce the “elixir of eternal life” or for material context, transform lead into gold.  For the 10th c.  alchemist, the element Mercury was the ‘silvery water’, and Sulphur was the ‘starry earth’.  

“I can appreciate Ibn Umayl’s reverence for the natural world and the belief that a single element may hold immense power and wisdom.  I’m fascinated to consider these centuries old ideas as I contemplate our 21st century climate disaster.

“The emergency of our time and an existential future compel me to empathize with aspects of the natural world through color, image, shape and gesture.  I’m interested in finding what must be discarded and what must be carried forward.  The un-seen contains both the beauty and the horror of what we have done.  For me, painting is a portal to this unseen world.”

About Lawre Stone

Lawre Stone grew up in suburban New Jersey and remembers painting the iridescent colors of a polluted sky over the oil slicked Passaic River from her bedroom.  Images of nature altered by human endeavor continue to inform her work.  Stone received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and MFA from The Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College. In the 1980’s she  moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn and established her painting studio among a  vibrant community of emerging artists. 

Her work is included in numerous collections and has been exhibited nationally in  galleries and non-profit spaces including Tanja Grunert Gallery, Joyce Goldstein  Gallery, The Ely Center for Contemporary Art, Thompson Giroux Gallery,  LABspace, P.S. 1, The Institute for Contemporary Art, and White Columns.  She is a recipient of a NYFA/NYSCA Fellowship.  Upcoming exhibitions include: “Mountain High, Valley Low”, LABspace, Hillsdale,  NY, Hudson, NY, “Baggage” at Icehouse Project Space, Sharon, CT, and  “Summer Selections” at Furnace Art on Paper Archive, Falls Village, CT.  

Lawre Stone is Associate Director of The Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College, Bard MFA.  She serves on the  Board of Directors of Millay Arts and is a member of ARTTABLE.  She lives and paints in Columbia County, NY.