Laura-Ann Fung

Laura-Ann Fung

Laura – Anne Fung began painting at the early age of ten. By the time she was twelve she received a gold medal in the JCDC visual arts competition. In the following years from 2007 to 2009 she has accomplished many things. In total she has received from the JCDC visual arts competition two gold medals, three silver medals, two bronze medals, three merits, the promise prize in 2007 and the viewer’s vote award in 2007. In addition to her awards she has taken part in many national and international exhibitions including “Esoteric Illusions” at the Art Fusion Gallery in Florida 2009, “Jamaican Art in London” at the Jamaica High Commission in London 2009, group exhibitions at the Berhane Selassie Art Gallery 2010 and Olympia Gallery 2008/2009.

Laura – Anne is fascinated with the abstract world, taking pieces of life and abstracting them to her likings. Her paintings are a combustion of bold colors and shapes that dare the onlooker’s gaze. On her canvases, fiery oranges and crimson hues are juxtaposed with peaceful blues and emerald greens. The kaleidoscopic arrays of colors explode in a frenzy onto darkened backdrops. Figures, flowers and faces melt into pools of grey and black splashed with white like the foam on the crest of waves.

Laura-Anne says that her inspirations come from her interactions and observations with commonplace happenings or things. A flower, spotted in passing, bursts in to a color which then transforms itself into a swirl or slash. Such images for Laura-Anne feed the creative urges within her; and consequently propel her to compose the symphonies that are her paintings.

Laura-Anne was born in 1992 in Kingston, Jamaica. The bright colors, as well as the chaos and spontaneity that characterize life in her Caribbean homeland, are reflected in the vibrancy of her paintings. Laura-Anne mostly paints in abstract forms. Representational painting has had little interest for her. From she was a mere 6 years old she has wanted to express the images that bombard her mind in splashes of color, strokes and symbols.

At 16 years old Laura-Anne, however, laments that Jamaicans, in general, have little appreciation for abstract art and, therefore, her paintings are often misunderstood. Nevertheless, Laura-Anne’s desire to interpret her vision of the world through her art continues to be irrepressible.