Bio
Laura Domela is a painter, photographer, and mixed media artist living and working in Portland, Oregon. She was born in Anchorage, Alaska, moved to Southern California at age five. She lived and worked in Los Angeles until relocating to Portland in 1995 to attend art school. She earned her BFA in Painting and Drawing from the Oregon College of Art & Craft in 1999.
Domela’s work explores the complexities of human emotion and behavior, often examining themes of fear, vulnerability, and resilience through layered compositions that merge organic forms and festive colors with dark shapes and stark geometries. Her work is in numerous public and private collections including the Portland Art Museum, Meyer Memorial Trust, Schnitzer Investment Corp. and The Neon Museum in Las Vegas.
In addition to painting and drawing, Domela studied portrait photography with renowned photographers Platon and Max Vadukul. Her photographic work has appeared on magazine covers, book and CD/album covers, billboards, and posters for numerous stage productions.
Her studio is located in Northeast Portland, where she works most of the year. In the summer, she lives aboard a boat in Southeast Alaska—surrounded by incredible scenery and wildlife—where she paints in a small, improvised studio space onboard.