Congratulations to Laura Porath!
Soul Gallery artist Laura Porath has won the 1st Award of Excellence in the Contemporary category of the SCA 57th Juried Exhibition for her stunning 21" x 14" x 12" chlorite stone sculpture "Grasping to Ascend".
Laura was born in Winnipeg, where she lives and works as an artist. She obtained her BFA Honors Degree from the University of Manitoba in 2011. Laura's work is primarily figurative stone sculpture and abstract paintings. Laura approaches sculpting as a conversation with the stone. She seeks out the material's potential to find what the stone has to offer and how she can work with it to create a powerful and evocative piece.
'Grasping to Ascend' captures the raw intensity of personal evolution. A human figure, crouched and contorted, pulls itself upward by the scruff of its own neck. The figure has grown a three segmented arm to give more strength and leverage to pull on itself. This unnatural reach speaks to the extraordinary adaptations we forge to rise beyond our limitations. The gesture is painful, the expression strained, yet the act is one of fierce will. Change is not graceful. It is effortful, awkward, and often self-inflicted. This sculpture embodies the quiet power of transformation, and the painful truth that becoming more often requires tearing something from within.
The exhibition received 631 submissions from 227 Canadian artists, from which 114 pieces were accepted into the exhibition.
You can view the Exhibition online at the SCA website: https://
This is Laura's second award from the Society of Canadian Artists this year.
