The work of Laura Elkins

20 Ninth Street NE
Washington DC 20002
202.546.4556

THE WHITE HOUSE COLLECTION
is a series of self-portraits as First Ladies that reference the official portraits in the White House. I use these matron icons to question our notions of femininity, sexuality and aging though the conceptual use of the traditional genre of portraiture.

HOME wRAP
addresses life in our age of catastrophe and was prompted by personal experience with abusive government, compounded by national and international political events.

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Self-portrait as Mamie
2000
acrylic on 1950s fabric
mounted on wood panel
42 x 34 inches

Artist Statement

After a decade in Manhattan where I had numerous exhibitions
including at the Betty Parson Gallery, my husband and I moved
our young family to the rural South, where I grew up. I began
painting the joys and frustrations of domestic life, which culm-
inated in Why There Are No Great Women Artists: The Children’s
Room, an art and architecture project funded by the NEA and
the Rockefeller and Andy Warhol Foundations.

We moved to Washington in 2000 and live nine blocks from the
US Capitol. I began The White House Collection after taking a
tour of the White House and seeing the collection of First Lady
portraits. HOME wRAP is a response to a series of abuses by
the DC government, including violation of our fourth amendment
rights, when a dozen armed police and inspectors from the DC
government raided our home. Where The Children’s Room is
fundamentally celebratory, my recent work addresses the effects
of the politicization of private life.

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