CV

About Me.

I sculpt metal, ceramic, wood, and glass into iconic and at times enigmatic forms that explore humankind’s relationship with nature. My work is influenced by a childhood split between rural Maine and New York City—an experience that inspired a profound interest in the dichotomy between communities in which people work close to nature, and the alienation of an urban, technological society. My sculptures explore and illustrate the parallels and interactions between these two worldsMany of my finished artworks also acquire the form and function of tools. Tools are essential for a complete discussion about the process of making sculpture. They are the extensions of the human hand through which materials are manipulated and shaped, and they are the vehicles through which information can be unearthed. The tools we apply to nature—to contain it, shape it, understand it and categorize it—also have a profound affect upon it. It is this impetus to measure, understand, contain and manipulate nature that I enact through my work.

Exhibitions

2012 Arkansas Art Center, The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of

Contemporary Craft, Ashville, North Carolina

2012 Ashville Art Museum, The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft, Ashville, North Carolina

2011 Browngrotta fine arts, Wilton CT, STIMULUS: art and its inception

2011 Bolinas Museum, Bolinas CA Two person show, Wolfgang Bloch & Lawrence LaBianca,

2011 Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft, Ashville, North Carolina

2010 Bolinas Museum, Bolinas CA, The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft, Ashville, North Carolina

2010 Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, Oakland, CA Lawrence LaBianca

and Esther Traugot,

2010 Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Mass, The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft

2010 Oakland Museum at City Center, Solo show, Oakland, CA

2009 Doug Adams Gallery Bade Museum, Berkeley, CA Mapping Sacred Ground

2009 The Cheese Factory, Petaluma, CA Terrior: A Sense of Place

2009 Nature (not as you’d expect), Gensler, Two Harrison St. San Francisco, CA

2008 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, Bay Area Now

2008 Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, Oakland, CA, Nature Study

2008 San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, CA, New West Coast Design

2007 Johansson projects, Oakland, CA, Two person show, Anatomy of Folklore

2007 Bedford Gallery, CA, Leaded: The Materiality and Metamorphosis of Graphite.

2007 Arts Benicia, CA, Looking Glass: seeing through the medium,

2007 Valladolid Sculpture Biennale, Spain

2007 Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Faithfully

2007 Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, CA, CCA: A Legacy in Studio Glass,

2006 Sculpture site Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Solo show

2006 California College of the Arts, Group Show

2006 California College of the Arts, A Family of Clay, CCA Ceramics 1950-2005,

2005 Andrea Schwartz Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Group show

2004 Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Solo show

2004 Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA, “a simple chair show”

2004 EDAW, San Francisco, CA, Group show

2002 Visual Perspectives: 14 Years of the Virginia A. Groot Awards, Chicago, juried show with catalog, Virginia Groot Foundation

2001 Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA, Group show

2000 Artisans Gallery, Mill Valley, CA, Group show,

2000 San Francisco Craft and Folk Museum, SF, Reliquaries for America

1999 Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA, Two person show

1999 Oakland City Hall, Oakland, CA, Group show

1999 Group juried show, Oliver Arts Center, Oakland, CA

1999 Artisans Gallery, Mill Valley, CA, Group show

1999 Dorothy Weiss Gallery, San Francisco, CA,Two person show,

1998 Bitters Gallery, Seattle, WA, Solo Show

1997 Two person show, DIVAN space SF, CA

1996 Solo Show, Bitters Gallery. Seattle, WA

1996 Solo Show, 21 Useful Objects (for getting there), WORKS Gallery, Sonoma, CA

1996 Magnolia Editions Gallery, San Francisco, CA April, Future Histories, Group show

1995 The Artery, Davis, CA, California Clay Competition

1995 Bitters Gallery, Seattle, WA, Solo Show

1994 SF Introductions at Dorothy Weiss Gallery, SF, CA

1994 Works Gallery, Sonoma, CA, Solo Show

1994 Southern Exposure Gallery Introduction shows, SF, CA

1994 Barclay Simpson Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA, Group show

AWARDS & HONORS

2012 Full Scholarship, Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle Wash.

2010 Artist in residence, Anderson Ranch Arts Center

2004 Scholarship, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass, Colorado

2000 Creative Work Fund, Collaborative Grant

2000 Virginia S Groot Foundation Grant for Sculpture

1999 Earnie Kim Award, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA

1998 Full Scholarship, Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle Wash.

1994 Barclay Simpson Award

1993, ‘94 Full Scholarship, Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle Wash.

PERFORMANCE

2002 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts with Flyaway Productions, San Francisco, CA

2001 Theater Artaud with Project Bandaloop, San Francisco, CA

2001 Somarts with Flyaway Productions, San Francisco, CA

2000 Feb. Collaborative sculptures for dance, Strange Love ODC Theater, San Francisco, CA

1999 Collaborative sculpture with Joanna Haigood and Axis dance company, Yerba Buana Center for the Arts, SF, CA

1999 Feb. Collaborative sculptures for dance, The Body Project, Flyaway Productions, Theater Artaud, San Francisco, CA

1997 May Collaborative sculptures for dance, Fellow Travelers Dance Company, Bradey St. Center, San Francisco, CA

1995 Oct. Collaborative sculptures for dance, Catastrophe Practice, the Fellow Travelers Dance Company, The New School, SF, CA

1994 Fellow Travelers Dance Company, Theater Artuad, SF, CA

PUBLICATIONS

2010 Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft, THE NEW MATERIALITY, Fuller Craft Museum, Boston, Mass

2008 Catalogue, Yerba Buena Center For The Arts, BAN 5

2007 Catalogue, Bienal De Escultura, De Valladolid

2007 Catalogue, CCA: A Legacy in Studio Glass, San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design,

2005 Catalogue, LaBianca Recent Works 49pgs., Emily Raabe, Jeff Nathenson

2003 Visual Perspectives: 14 Years of the Virginia A. Groot Awards pg., 108-111

PRESS

2010 Anderson Ranch, In Residence: Lawrence LaBianca, November, 5

2010 The Providence Sunday Journal, Craft enters the digital age, July 11

2010 When handmade meets digital, sparks fly, Boston Sunday Globe, June 20

2010 The San Francisco Chronicle, Abstractionist’s art looks alive, Sept. 4

2008 Artweek, September 2008, v39 issue 7 ‘Bay Area Now 5’ at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, back page

2008 The Brooklyn Rail, Sept. 2008, Bay Area Now 5, Tessa DeCarlo

2008 Artweek, February 2008, ‘Looking Glass’ at Arts Benicia, Dewitt Chang

2008 San Francsico Chronicle, Wednesday, Oct. 1 What buildings say vs. unbuilt ideas, pg. G2, Zahid sardner

2008 San Francisco Bay Gaurdian, July 16-22, biennialmania, For regional survey exhibitions, It’s location, location, location, pg. 44 Stacy Martin

2008 San Francisco Bay Gaurdian, Wednesday, July 16, Doing it Naturally, Stacy Martin

2008 American Craft Magazine, Feb New West Coast Design: Contemporary Objects at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, Mija Riedel

2008 Berkeley Daily Planet, Thursday, August 14, San Francisco Triennal at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. pg

2008 East Bay Express, April 30, 2008, Nature Makes a Comeback, Three artists do field work in reality, Dewitt Chang

2007 San Francisco Chronicle, Thursday, November 22, Branching Out, ‘Anatomy of Folklore’ Using materials raw helps show relationship between human and nature

2006 Oct 19 San Francisco Chronicle, Sculptor-rock climber Lawrence LaBianca Retools Nature, Jesse Hamlin

2006 Aug SF Weekly, August 30-September 5, pg 35, Lea Feinstein

2006 Aug San Francisco Examiner, Weekend Edition, August 26-27, Tiffany Martini

2006 Aug SF Weekly, August 30-September 5, pg 35, Lea Feinstein

2004 July Travel and Leisure,

2003 Visual Perspectives: 14 Years of the Virginia A. Groot Awards

pg., 108-111

2001 June Review, Artweek, V. 32, p.12

2001 April SF Weekly, April 4-10, pg., 36

2000 Feb. Ceramics Monthly,

2000 Feb. San Francisco Bay Guardian, February 9, 2000, pg., 74

1994 Aug Review, Artweek, V. 25, p.17