Meet Michael Laurito

Michael Laurito, Twisting Banyan, Pen, and alcohol Ink on handmade paper, 8"x11", $225

Artist Statement : 

My artwork explores the intricate and often brutal relationship between human interference and the living and changing environment. I take inspiration from decay, history and twisting forms, to investigate these changed landscapes and beings that inhabit them. The aftermath of human involvement forces ecosystems and their inhabitants to respond, regenerate.  Even the rot that this creates gives birth to new variations of life. Through prints, sculptures, and paper works, I explore natural cycles disrupted by people, and the consequence of new forms of 

Evolution.

Central to my practice is the notion of "hyper-ecologies"—new ecosystems that emerge from the ruins of human disruption. They are permanent scars, but it's easy to find beauty in the grotesque. These ruined ecologies are covered and colonized in new forms of life that are symbols of resilience. Decay becomes something sacred, as new life blooms from it. 

Hyper-Ecologies challenge views on the future, they twist and warp notions of the natural and the healthy. I embrace these changes, and watch the transformation of decay into new life. My art consecrates hyper ecologies as the Holy Land. The environmental ooze may consume us, but I will lay in it.

Follow Michael Laurito on Instagram: @Michael.laurito