Biography
Shauna Lan La is an American artist based between Los Angeles and New York. Her practice spans painting, sculpture, and installation, and is marked by material rigor and conceptual clarity. Prior to turning fully to art, she worked as a radio frequency engineer, an experience that continues to inform her sensitivity to invisible systems, transmission, and spatial tension. She studied at Columbia College Chicago before moving to California in 2006, where she continued her studies at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She is currently developing Carnal, an evolving body of sculptural monochromatic works that extends her inquiry into embodiment, instinct, desire, and the violence of corporeal existence.
Statement
My work investigates the unseen forces and conditions that shape existence, seeking forms through which they can be made physically and spatially present.
The monochromatic works in my Timeless series embody the invisible energy that we are made of and that surrounds us. Each work reflects a moment’s energy flux, giving physical form to something that is usually felt rather than seen. Through monochrome, I focus on vibration, force, rhythm, stillness, and presence, allowing the work to register an intangible condition in material form.
My conceptual installations extend this inquiry into lived space. Some seek to recreate the exact feeling of a place or moment—its atmosphere, stillness, tension, and sensory charge. Some examine loss, instability, and the loss of self. Others are shaped by cycles of renewal, decay, and death, or by the blind systems of consumption and collective behavior. Through elemental materials and immersive conditions, I construct works that are not simply representations, but embodied situations in which these forces can be encountered.
Across painting, sculpture, and installation, my practice is an effort to make palpable what is often unseen, yet profoundly felt.