Lauren E. Peters

The Choice Is Yours 

Dressing up in different outfits or costumes for my paintings reflects the choices we make about who we want to be in the world, an image we want to project, or the armor to get us through the day. At the root of all of this is a questioning of what is the true, authentic self; and is that even a question we can definitively answer? In this series, there are sections that look unfinished juxtaposed against full, vibrant color to highlight the specific objects and materials we put on our bodies to construct an expression of self. I wanted there to be a tension between saturation making things feel “real” and a lack of coloration to signify what is hidden or unknown, and also examine how we react to a figure seemingly lost to their wardrobe or environment. A visible deconstruction of the process of paintings seeks to mimic the layers of self imposed on our corporeal forms. As I try to see myself differently in order to create these variations, I ask the viewer to consider the complexity of how we see ourselves and each other, and what may be hidden beneath the surface.

 

Bio

Lauren E. Peters is a visual artist working with the concept of identity through self-portraiture. She began creating within this genre for a small exhibit in 2016 after an extended hiatus from painting, and two years later won the “Emerging Artist” fellowship by the Delaware Division of the Arts. Lauren was the 2023 Delaware Individual Artist Fellow for Visual Arts: Painting, awarded the grant as an "Established Fellow" with an affiliated exhibition at the Biggs Museum of American Art. Peters has exhibited on a national level and is also active locally in her home state as a studio artist at The Delaware Contemporary. In the spring of 2024, Peters attended a residency at the Vermont Studio Center supported, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. Lauren attended the Soaring Gardens Artist Residency in the summer of 2022, supported by the same grant. She was also awarded a month-long residency at ChaShaMa's international program ChaNorth in the Hudson Valley in May of 2024. She continues to grow as an artist and expand the world in which the portraits exist, and more information may be found at laurenepeters.com or @lauren.e.peters on Instagram.