Laura Frazure

Laura Frazure has been a Fine Arts assistant professor at UArts since 2016. She has taught at multiple institutions in Philadelphia, New York and China over the past 24 years. 

Her primary interest as an artist and teacher is sculptural anatomy. Frazure has developed a unique system, working with academics in China at the Central Academy of Fine Art, the Tianjin Academy of Fine Art and nationally at the New York Academy of Art and University of Pennsylvania. She has a date pending at the Xi’an Academy once travel restrictions are lifted.

Biography

Laura Frazure earned her BFA from University of the Arts in 1986 and her MFA in Sculpture from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004. Believing in classical ideas about form sense and its communicative potential, Frazure models figures that are theatrical and contemporary. In her works over the past decade, she has emphasized “direct modeling,” highlighting form and form development with no subsequent mediatory processes. 

Using translucent waxes coated with a thin glaze of oil paint and varnish, Frazure constructs the figures on a steel-reinforced aluminum wire armature. The final outcome, though stable and permanent, conveys an ephemeral quality of fragile immediacy. 

Frazure studied with Walter Erlebacher and worked as an assistant in his studio. After graduation, Laura taught herself anatomy and developed a unique pedagogical system of anatomical instruction.

Experience

Frazure’s exhibitions include

• Island Weiss Gallery, Phoenix Gallery, Medialia Gallery and Sotheby’s, all in New York City; 
• World Financial Center, Shanghai, China;
• Shanghai University, China; and
• Leader of International Anatomy Intensive, Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China. 

Her recent lectures include 

• “Anatomy and Artists,” delivered at the Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China; and
• an artist lecture delivered at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Art, China.

Other honors include

• Roman Witt Visiting Artist, Penny Stamps School of Art and Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor;
• residency and visiting professor, Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China and Tianjin Academy of Fine Art, Tianjin, China; and
• Residency, Truro Center for the Arts, Massachusetts, 2017 and 2018.

Explore Laura Frazure’s website. 

Awards & Accolades

Frazure has been awarded 

• two PEW Fellowship Discipline awards and 
• the Robert Engman Award in Sculpture.

Contact
lfrazure@uarts.edu