Larry Mclaughlin’s work relies on observation. The artist seeks to understand nature and self by exploring the interplay between consciousness and imagination. By doing so, the artist tries to express something essential, and to capture this at its most forceful moment. McLaughlin’s art carries a simplicity of form that reveals raw beauty through material.
In his own words, Larry describes his desire to: juxtapose movement with stillness; transparency with solidity; occupy space but not to enclose it; use (my) forms to articulate space; create the surrounding.
When he works with sculptures, he first creates an armature upon which he pushes wet concrete. The process of creation is very personal; the concrete is a very live material in his hands as he applies the wet concrete in circular motions around the armature. His sculptures are a search for weightless materiality, where the pieces seemingly detach from the ground with no frame or boundaries. It challenges the viewer’s preconceived notions of concrete as an industrial material.
Born in Litchfield, Minnesota in 1956, McLaughlin began working in sculpture while studying at the University of California at Santa Cruz in the 1970s. Later he worked in London painting and printmaking. In 1988 he completed studies at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Paris. His work was first shown there in the Atelier Charpentier. McLaughlin maintains studio-residences in France and the United States. He keeps a workshop in the Loire Valley in France and another on two acres of desert in Phoenix, Arizona. His work can be viewed in numerous galleries in Europe, Canada and the USA.