Laura Sallade

b. 1990; Reading, PA; lives and works in Philadelphia, PA
Laura Sallade’s practice investigates the interdependent relationship and transient perception of light and matter. With a particular interest in physics and colloquial references to light as a fleeting presence - a shadow appears, the sun sets, a beam of light enters the room - the artist uses glass, silver, and mixed media to capture moments of material flux and challenge paradoxical understandings of the world.

The artist’s work is compelled by an urgency to ground each image in the material world. She contends with the over-filtration and diminishing returns of technological mediation by making work that walks the line between image and object. While technically classifiable as sculpture, her “wall-hung” reflective glass works read as paintings that use the presence and absence of light to articulate the ineffable, narrowing the gap between the seen and the unseen, material and immaterial. By salvaging and foraging glass from various contexts, the artist eludes capitalist binaries between producer and consumer and tracks the lineage of glass while envisioning new trajectories. Giving agency to discarded matter, Sallade facilitates its behavior and considers the accelerating shift of material ecologies.

Sallade’s process is technically complex and distinct, born partially from an arts education at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia that allowed her to follow, develop, and experiment with her unrestricted curiosities. Using controlled chemical reactions and manipulating multiple materials, including glass, silver nitrate, mylar, and resin the artist produces multi-layered reflective creations. Both analytical and intuitive, the artist actively employs math, optics, memory, and play, relying on the entangled and indeterminate qualities of both glass and light to create evocative gestural works. Instead of planning every step of the process and resigning to a predetermined outcome, the artist allows the process to surprise her. Often working on multiple projects and ideas at once, Sallade never knows what layers will end up together. Inspired by artists such as Pat Steir and Gerhardt Richter, Sallade’s mission as an artist is to create utilitarian objects meant to challenge her viewers to think critically, pay closer attention, and take a moment for contemplation.  

Laura Sallade has exhibited throughout Pennsylvania, New York, Montana, and Maryland, including group exhibitions at the Piano Craft Gallery in Boston, MA (2022); the Ann Marie Sculpture Garden & Art Center in Solomons, MD (2021); and the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill, PA (2015). She obtained a Certificate in Sculpture from The Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts in Philadelphia in 2013 and, during her studies, was awarded numerous grants and scholarships including the PAFA Fellowship Prize, the Richard C. Von Hess Travel Scholarship, the Susan Land Memorial Prize for Printmaking, and the Wolf Scholarship in Honor of Peter Paone. Sallade was selected for the Sim Residency in Reykjavik, Iceland (2023), the Lackland Well Artist in Residence (2021), the Longwood University Visiting Artist (2021), and the NextFab Artisan Accelerator Fellowship (2021). She has recently been awarded the Michael Tomassoni Scholarship (2021), the Jurors Award from the Ann Marie Sculpture Garden & Art Center in Solomons, MD (2021), and Philly Current Magazine’s ‘Best of Philadelphia’ (2019). Sallade’s work has been commissioned for the permanent collections of the Ritz Carlton in Amelia Island, FL, Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, the Atlantic Aviation Airport in Philadelphia, PA, Vail Resort in Vail, CO, Anthropologie Clothing Stores in Philadelphia, PA & New York City, NY, and Dualtone Music Group in Nashville, TN.  Her artwork is found in private collections around the world in cities such as Paris, Philadelphia, New York City, San Diego, Marseille, and Nantucket. The artist lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.