Laura J. Padgett

Laura J. Pagett (born 1958) is an American artist, mainly working in photography and film.

Laura J. Padgett was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The artist studied painting at Pratt Institute of Art and Design in Brooklyn, New York from 1976-1980, receiving her BFA in 1980. Since 1981 she has been living in Europe. Padgett went on to study Photography and Film with Peter Kubelka and Herbert Schwöbel at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, receiving her Master's in Art History from Frankfurt Goethe-Universität in 1994.

Since 1992 the artist has also taught at many higher education institutions in Germany, USA and Jordan, including the Bauhaus-Universität in Weimar, Hochschule für Gestaltung, Offenbach, Paderborn University, Drexel Universtiy and the Hochschule-Rhein-Main in Wiesbaden. She is currently teaching in the Theater, Film and Media Studies Department at the Goethe-University in Frankfurt am Main. She lives and works in Frankfurt am Main.

Padgett’s medium is photography and film. Her artistic oeuvre often features urban landscapes and interiors, with a concentration on transient spaces created by humans and objects that remain as traces of everyday culture. In her photographic work the artist also composes single photographs into diptychs, triptychs or series. Text is introduced selectively to create correlations and as a deepening of the narrative. While at times Padgett emphasizes details and some imagesrelate to classic still life, other works concentrate their focus on architectural elements in specific relationships. Both share the visualization of structures and layers that bring to light the correlations behind the surfaces of the obvious. Padgett uses a wide range of techniques, from classic black & white and color film to digital photography and augmented reality. Since 2018 she is represented by the Gallery-Peter-Sillem.

Since 1991, Laura J. Padgett’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Germany and throughout Europe. Her photography has also been widely published. The artist's photographs accompany the essays by Peter Zumthor in Thinking Architecture (2006/2010/2012). Between 2010 and 2012 Padgett followed the new construction and renovation of the Städel Museum resulting in the publication "Raum über Zeit – Space over Time" (2012). During this period of two years she created photographic narratives that capture time as the space in between. "Confined Space" was published in 2016, showcasing photographs she made in Lebanon during times she spent there from 2011 to 2015. Her most recent publication "Open Equations" appeared in 2019.

Padgett’s films have been screened internationally at venues like the Media City Film Festival, Detroit, Cité Paris, House of World Cultures, Berlin, Pharos Centre for Contemporary Art in Nicosia, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Mousonturm in Frankfurt am Main, Cineteca di Bologna, Künstlerhaus Kino in Vienna, Viper Filmfestival in Bern, Kunsthalle Erfurt and at the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen. In 2017 she received the Marielies-Hess Art Award. In the accompanying exhibition at the Museum Giersch of the Goethe University, she also screened her film SOLITAIRE (2017). A small selection of her films will be presented at the San Francisco Cinemateque's CROSSROADS Film Festival, 21. August - 30. September 2020, curated by Steve Polta.

• 1998 systematic renewal, dirty windows, Berlin
• 1999 common occurrences, KunstRaum Klaus Hinrichs, Trier
• 1999 marginalia, Goethe-Institut, Warsaw
• 1999 an enlightened Moment, Duchess Anna Amalia Library, Weimar
• 1999 Foto / Text Work, KunstRaum Klaus Hinrichs, Trier
• 2001 morning glories, AusstellungsHalle Schulstrasse 1A, Frankfurt am Main
• 2003 improbabilities, Galerie Seitz & Partner, Berlin
• 2003 conversation pieces, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
• 2004 vorübergehende Ortschaften, Galerie Martina Detterer, Frankfurt am Main
• 2005 inside-out, Galerie Seitz & Partner, Berlin
• 2006 slow motion, Odakule Art Gallery, Istanbul
• 2008 Holding onto things, Galerie Seitz & Partner, Berlin
• 2008 seeing things, Pharos Arts Foundation, Nicosia, Cyprus
• 2011 frames of reference, Galerie Martina Detterer, Frankfurt
• 2012 Standardeinstellung,Neuer Kunstverein Gießen [de]
• 2014 MONUMENT, Künstlerfahnenfestival, Eppingen
• 2015 Confined Space, Heussenstamm-Stiftung, Frankfurt am Main
• 2016 Many Told Tales, Galerie Straihammer & Seidenschwann, Vienna
• 2016 Confined Space, Galerie Rautenstrauch in Onomato Künstlerverein, Düsseldorf
• 2017 Somehow Real, Exhibition in conjunction with receiving the Marielies-Hess Kunstpreis , Museum Giersch der Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main
• 2019 Open Equations, Galerie-Peter-Sillem, Frankfurt am Main