Laurena Finéus
Bio: Laurena Finéus is a Haitian-Canadian interdisciplinary artist working primarily in painting, performance and social practice. She was born and raised in Ottawa, ON. She is a graduate from the University of Ottawa with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Her work has been exhibited at the Hudson River Museum (2023), Jenkins Johnson (2023), G101 (2022), Karsh-Masson Gallery (2021), the Ottawa Art Gallery (2021), and Art mûr (2019), among others. She was the recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (2022-23), the Ottawa Arts Council IBPOC Emerging Artist Award (2022), and the Ineke Harmina Standish Memorial (2019). She is currently based in Brooklyn, NY.
laurenafineus.com
Instagram @laurenafineus
Thesis Exhibition
Artist Statement: My work explores representations of black geographies, maroon ideologies, and migratory patterns. I am interested in exploring ideas surrounding statelessness, faith and emotional fugitivity—starting from the Haitian migration crisis that has been taking place since the 1980s until now. Marronage, as a black geography, truly offers an alternative way of life and it redefines notions of spatiality through Black self-determination. In my works, I depict ‘zones of refuge’ which describe maroons’ regions of existence. This has led me to indulge in representations of Mountain ranges, swamps, and arid plains—all environments in Quilombo topographies. My strategies include the collapsing of communal histories across time, memory, and space. In hopes to center a discarded black sovereign past and future.
Historically, Haiti speaks to issues around fear of Black governance, the condition of asylum seekers in the Americas and neocolonialism. These all serve as entry points for my research, defining why I continue to turn to it as a foundation. Furthermore, I see continuous thinking patterns between our maroon ancestors and migrants today from their core desire for freedom to their vibrant imaginations of brilliant futures.
Laurena Finéus
Crawling back to the skies / Avan loraj, 2024
Oil, dry pigments, and ink on canvas
Courtesy of the artist
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Dark water of renewal, 2024
Oil, dry pigments, and ink on canvas
Courtesy of the artist
&
La Mariée somnanbule, 2024
Oil, dry pigments, and ink on canvas
72" x 48" x 2"
Courtesy of the artist
First Year Exhibition
Laurena Finéus
Pour ses passagers du vent (For those passengers of the wind), 2023
Oil on canvas
40" x 72" x 1"
Courtesy the artist
