"Laura is so established, so secretly collected and hoarded that I am immensely excited to show her work to our new collectors. Typically one of the paintings I wanted to show had just been bought by an Australian collector. Typical because these gloriously disciplined oils and watercolours are lively, colourful interpretations that capture a moment in time with a lingering freshness.

"Laura studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and her works speak of that tradition; Matthew Smith, Patrick George and the more contemporary Andy Pankhurst come to mind.  She further studied at the Royal Drawing School, winning the Richard Ford Award, before returning to the Slade for her MFA and winning the Clare Winston Memorial Award. The discipline of drawing is important to her as it is an important criteria for all the artists that we have chosen to show. Drawing remains the training that leads the mind, directs the hand under the clever tutelage of the eye. Ideas are easy, making them come alive require rigour and imagination.

"Wishing to be an artist from a very young age, inspired by the elegance of Giorgi Morandi and the humanity of Rembrandt, Laura’s work arrests the collector and the pleasure can be found in even the smallest watercolour as prevalent as the story is always there to be heard."

- Nick Crean, December 2020

Laura Smith trained at The Slade School of Fine Art where she won the Clare Winsten Memorial Award, graduating from her MFA in 2012. A still-life painter working towards the abstract tradition, she is interested in dissolving our familiarity with everyday objects. Her current work explores the idea that repeated motifs enable a deeper and freer investigation of the objects themselves. The paintings often depict emotive gestures and actions, where objects take the place of the loved, the abandoned and the closely held.

Smith’s work has been included in group shows such as Efflorescence, 155A Gallery, 2020; Ruth Borchard Prize Exhibition, Piano Nobile Kings Place, 2019; Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, 2018; and Spring Exhibition, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, 2018. She was shortlisted for the Threadneedle Prize in 2011 and 2016, and was awarded the Richard Ford Award from the Royal Drawing School in 2004.