Laura Peterson

Artist Statement

I am an interdisciplinary artist working with choreography and installation art. My work explores the materiality of the body in relation to the physical world—objects and forces—as well as the intangible frameworks of history, politics, and society. My movement language is abstract, dealing with pattern, time, line, shape, repetition, and space. I extend this ethos to the sculptural elements that also populate the stage. My recent work is concerned with the climate emergency and the devastating effects humans have on the environment. My work is an exploration of breakdown, limits, and the inevitable disruption of order by chaos. I am drawn to the beauty of line, form, direction; the drama of watching those elements fall apart. I’m fascinated by the monstrosity of human egos and desires and our Sisyphean striving against forces greater than ourselves. I find elegance in the exhaustion of a performer striving to fulfill an impossible task.

Interglacial (2021) by Laura Peterson Premiered at Dixon Place, NYC photo by Peter Yeasley

Bio

Laura Peterson is the Artistic Director of Laura Peterson Choreography and founder of Open Arts Studio in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Her work explores the visceral exchange between moving bodies and the materials used in her performance environments. She creates large structures and paintings as mediums to express her interest in the intersection of physicality and the world around us. Peterson’s work is focused on nature, and the climate emergency that threatens all life. Peterson has received commissions for the last 15 years and supported by Brooklyn Arts Council (2023 & 2025), NYSCA Choreography Commission for Individual Artists (2021) Her works have been commissioned by Dixon Place, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Queens Museum, Temple University and others. Residency awards include HERE Artist Residency Program. Bogliasco Foundation in Italy, Marble House Project, Subcircle, and Jamaica Center for the Arts. SOLO, Peterson’s performance and large scale paintings, was included in MoMA’s exhibition Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done at the Judson Dance Theater Reassembled event in NYC. Her dances have been presented at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, and throughout NYC. Internationally, her work has been produced in Argentina, Europe, and Russia.

https://www.openartsstudio.org/company