Lauren
Comito
Media:
Painting, Mixed Media
Studio Location:
Puremoon Studios 10-20 46th Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101
Room/Studio#
6
Website:
Artist Bio:
Lauren Comito is a visual artist based in New York City and upstate New York. She holds an MFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA in Art History and Painting from Tyler School of Art. Comito most recently exhibited in Gritty Rituals, a three-person exhibition featuring John O’ Connor and Peter Schenck at Equity Gallery in New York, NY. Her work was featured in a summer exhibition titled Vagabond Shoes, curated by Ben Klein at McBride Contemporain in Montreal, Quebec. This past year, her work was featured in a See You Next Thursday Art Auction and the group show Backwater at Field of Play Gallery in Brooklyn. Her work has been exhibited at PS1 (Iowa City), Open Air Media Festival (Iowa City), Shrine Gallery (New York), Park Place Gallery (New York), 25Kent presented by Wallplay (New York), the Hewitt Gallery at Marymount Manhattan College (New York), Index Art Center (Newark), Chashama: A Space to Present (New York), Slag Gallery (New York), Touch Gallery (Boston), The Rema Hort Mann Foundation (New York), Icebox at Crane Arts (Philadelphia), Swarovski Headquarters (Cranston, RI), Mighty Tanaka Gallery (New York), University of Delaware Crane Gallery (Philadelphia), University Arts League (Philadelphia) and the Slought Foundation, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia). She published a limited printed edition with Eminence Grise Editions, showcased at the Editions and Artists' Book Fair and Art on Paper in New York, and the SOON Paris Art Fair.
Artist Statement:
Lauren Comito's art explores the profound interconnectedness between living and non-living entities, examining how we both influence and are influenced by natural ecosystems and human-made environments. Dividing her time between upstate New York and New York City.
Comito transforms overlooked everyday objects, particularly discarded packaging, into complex, meaningful structures. These ordinary items become potent symbols of impermanence and our consumer society. Through symmetry and repetition, she constructs figures that emerge from abstraction, inviting viewers to engage in pareidolia—perceiving faces, watchful eyes, and portals within her compositions. Her work investigates pattern perception across natural and constructed environments, bridging abstraction and recognition. By repurposing waste materials to highlight microscopic organisms typically invisible to the human eye, Comito creates a dialogue between consumption and conservation. Her colorful, Rorschach-like figures confront viewers while offering a playful counterpoint to serious undertones. This transformation of waste into vital ecological representations challenges viewers to experience new dimensions of our relationship with both water and waste. Comito's deliberately convoluted structures prompt questions about the psychic impact of our contemporary landscape on consciousness and our collective responsibility toward precious ecosystems.