Laura Kina

  1. Over the Rainbow, One More Time (2022) – acrylic and charcoal on canvas; 36 x 48 in.
  2. Cancer: Call and Response (2022) – acrylic and mixed media (tassel pastie, feathers, googly eyes, and rhinestones) on Legion Stonehenge paper; 104 x 82 in. (12 panels 22 x 30 in. each)
  3. Exam Room (2022) – acrylic and charcoal on Legion Stonehenge paper mounted on birch panel; 30 x 22 in.
  4. Sick Bed (2022) – acrylic and charcoal on Legion Stonehenge paper mounted on birch panel; 30 x 22 in.
  5. Chemo Bay (2022) – acrylic and charcoal on Legion Stonehenge paper mounted on birch panel; 30 x 22 in.
  6. ER (2022) – acrylic and charcoal on Legion Stonehenge paper mounted on birch panel; 30 x 22 in.
  7. Homeostasis (2023) – mixed media installation; approx. 87 x 84 x 16 in.
  8. Collapse (2023) – acrylic and charcoal on canvas panel framed; 16 x 20 in.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Laura Kina (she/her) is a queer mixed-race Okinawan American artist and Vincent de Paul Professor at The Art School at DePaul University in Chicago (land of the Three Fires Confederacy). Kina received her BFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and MFA in Studio Art from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Kina has exhibited her paintings and mixed-media art nationally and internationally in galleries and museums including the Chicago Cultural Center, India Habitat Centre, India International Centre, Japanese American National Museum, Okinawa Prefectural Art Museum, Rose Art Museum, the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Spertus Museum, and the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience. Kina is an Art Matters Foundation Grantee, and through 3Arts – 3AMP Mentorship artist, a Make a Wave artist, Joan Mitchell Center Fellow, 3AP Project awardee, and Ragdale Fellow.

Kina’s 2023 “Over the rainbow, One More Time” series is about starting over. It’s about grief and life in the after. Conceived during the Covid-19 pandemic in the wake of surviving breast cancer, the end of a 25-year-long marriage, and coming out as queer, Kina’s paintings and photographic installations use storytelling and fragments of memories to trace her journey through trauma into wellness and the unknown. In a world gone askew, Kina’s paintings find beauty and hope in moments of collapse from her sickbed, the bathroom floor, hospital, psych ward, and emergency room.

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© Laura Kina