Laura Jane Petelko is a Canadian photographic artist, based in Toronto, Canada. Having studied in Vancouver, Petelko began her career in the arts there in the early 2000's, documenting times of transformation in her subjects lives and collaborating with women to reclaim and use their own bodies as the media for their messages in her first series “Listen”.
Petelko studied and worked as a master printer for west coast based photographic artists such as Harmony Korine, Kelly Wood, Roy Arden and Ed Rusche. There, she was represented by Vancouver’s “Third Avenue Gallery” for several years before moving back to Toronto.
Currently, she is exhibiting her latest series MA and Phototropic. Created during the pandemic, in collaboration with dancers from the National Ballet Of Canada. This work explores universally human themes and struggles. The beauty and mystery involved in uncertain times, transformation and emergence. It has been shown at the Lyceum Gallery, Toronto & Cavalier Gallery, Palm Beach and New York City, The Christopher Hill Gallery in Napa, as well as having been featured in Park Magazine/ Spring 2022.
Her enigmatic “Soft Stories' was photographed between 2016 and 2019, explores the duality between our longing for connection with nature and the flawed, poetic ways we might go about that. As well as, on a basic level, a need for comfort and protection. This project was produced in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Sara Wood, who helped imagine and created the creatures for the collaboration. “Soft Stories” was featured in Times Sqaure as part of Cube Fair, Scope Fair Miami in 2019 and in Blank Spaces magazine following her solo exhibition in Toronto, late 2019, as well as several solo exhibitions.
Petelko’s work over 25 years, has been known for its emotive sincerity, intimate and tender subject matter. Following a 3 year period of being faced with the prognosis of impending blindness, she began to use of in-camera abstraction to remove information in order to heighten and leave what she feels is essential to the feeling an image is seeking to imply. At the same time, moving out of the limits of photography’s typical relationship with information, resolution and detail.
Laura Jane Petelko’s work has been recognized and exhibited throughout Canada and the US With collectors worldwide.
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2022 Phototropic, The Lyceum Gallery, Toronto Canada
2021 MA, The Lyceum gallery, Toronto Canada
2020 Endless Gone , The Lyceum Gallery, Toronto Canada
2019 Soft Stories, Lycyum Gallery, Toronto Canada
2019 Endless Gone, Yorkville Village, Toronto
2019 . Soft Stories, Gitana Rosa Gallery, Brooklyn, NY Artsy exclusive
2012. Suit Of Lights, Cava , Toronto
2011 Suit of Lights, The Department, Toronto, Canada
2005 At 28 - CBC Featured Artist, CBC Radio 3, Monthly Web Exhibition
2003 At 28, Artemis Gallery, Seattle, USA
2002 Listen, Women of Wisdom Conference, Seattle, USA
2001 At 28, Bjornsen Kajiwara Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
1998 Beholder, Third Avenue Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
1997 Listen, Third Avenue Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
1997 Listen, TreeHouse Gallery, Toronto, Canada
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2022, The Christopher Hill Gallery, Napa CA
2022, Cavalier Galleries, Palm Beach , FL, USA
2022, Virgil Catherine Gallery, Chicago IL
2021, Cavalier Galleries, Nantucket USA
2021, What She Said, Toronto Canada (curated by Monica Gupta)
2021, Cube Fair, Times Square NYC
2021, Contact Photography Festival, Arta Gallery Toronto
2020, Cube Fair, Brussels Belgium
2020 Arta Gallery, Toronto Canada, Endless Gone
2019 Childrens Museum of the Arts, Endless Gone, NYC
2019 Scope Art Show, NYC, Soft Stories with CAPUSA Gallery
2019 Art Wynwood, Miami, Soft Stories with CAPUSA Gallery
2018 Scope Miami, Soft Stories - Featured Scope Artist for CAPUSA Gallery
2019. Cube Fair, Soho NYC, Zaha Hadid Highline Group Sow, Endless Gone
2017 T, Nuit Rose featured artist. Toronto Canada
2011 CONTACT Photography Festival, Curated by Cava, Toronto, Canada
2010 KENK, A Graphic Novel, Store front installations, Toronto, Canada
2006 Megan at 28, CBC Radio 3, Featured in Canada Wide Tour
2005 Megan at 28, Bjornsen Kajiwara Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
1995 Angel Pieces, Swim Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
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2022 Park Magazine, 8 page artist interview.
2021 Authority Magazine , Featured artist interview.
2020 The Art Newspaper, featured photograph of artwork in Times Sqaure.
2019 Blank Spaces Magazine, Cover feature and interview spread for “Soft Stories”
2017 Out Tv, Interview for T, as part of Nuit Rose
2001 Xtra West, Vancouver for At 28
1998 Vancouver Television (live interview for Behold(her)
1998 Vie Des Arts, Montreal for Behold(her)
1997 Now Magazine featured, Toronto for Listen
1997 Eye Magazine featured, Toronto for Listen
1997 CBC Radio Canada interview for Listen
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Vancouver Film School and Langara College, Vancouver, Canada.
Personal fine art printer for Kelly Wood, Harmony Korine, Candice Meyer and Mark Gilbert.
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PARK Magazine, The Art Newspaper, Paper Magazine, Surface Magazine, Blank Spaces Magazine, Adbusters, A&M Music , Random House, Anansi Press, Double Day Publishing, Western Living, Shadow Shows, In Hell's Belly, and Flare.
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Suit of Lights, Cava restaurant Toronto.
Private collections, Canada, United States and Europe.