Laura Footes

Born 1988, GB
Lives and works in Margate, GB

In Laura Footes’ dream-like paintings, a cast of ghost-like forms are rendered through an elastic timeframe, occupying almost hallucinatory space yet tethered to a familiar reality. 

The imagery is pulled from Footes’ personal experience and fragments of memory, filtered through an agglomeration of art historical references, the aesthetics of cinematography, French poetry and world literature – elements that the artist became acquainted with during long periods of convalescence. Living with an aggressive autoimmune disease since childhood has prompted her to explore ideas of dysfunction (disease) and healing, and how they manifest in the psychological, architectural and bodily realms. 

Footes describes her process as pulling apart the facades of architecture and the flesh, looking to capture things the eye can’t see and that are also beyond the limitations of technology. Influenced by the innumerable NHS x-rays and scanners used on her own body, she likes to ‘zoom out’ and create psychogeographic mind maps of remembered spaces and neighbourhoods, and then ‘zoom in’ – seeing through walls, exploring interiors and peering through the spectre of the permeable, transient body into the cosmos of its cells. With everything laid bare for her audience – the uncomfortable moments, the daily rituals, and even our internal systems, both anatomical and psychological, Footes hopes to share the beauty of dysfunction. 

Laura Footes (born in 1988, lives and works in Margate, GB) recently held a solo exhibition titled Anamnesis at the Shrine Gallery (New York, NY, US). She has also participated in several group and two-person exhibitions, including at the Carl Freedman Gallery (Margate, GB) , the Royal Academy (London, GB) , the Royal Scottish Academy (Edinburgh, GB) , and in exhibitions organized by the Royal Drawing School at Christie’s (New York, NY, US and London, GB) and Buckingham Palace (London, GB). Her works are part of prestigious collections such as the Royal Collection (GB) , the Tracey Emin Foundation (GB) , the Rothschild Collection (GB/FR) , the Blavatnik Family Foundation (US/GB), and the Koç Family Collection (Istanbul, TR). Among her awards and residencies, she was granted the Art Student’s League of New York and National Art’s Club Residency (New York, NY, US) in 2014 and was part of the Tracey Emin Foundation mentorship program (Margate, GB) in 2024.