Photo by Dean Holmes
Gallery Exhibitions
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Laura Jane Petelko
Laura Jane Petelko is a distinguished photographer celebrated for her painterly approach, blending abstraction with emotional depth. Over the last 20 years, now back in her native Toronto, she has become known for her emotive and intimate subject matter, structured within ongoing series that challenge photography’s traditional relationship with information, resolution, and detail. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at major institutions like Christie’s, where it was featured in the preview of The Eye of the Collector, as well as leading art fairs such as Photo London and the London Art Fair, where she continues to attract global attention.
Her Endless Gone series (2019–present) emerged from a deeply personal experience —after facing the prognosis of impending blindness, she began using in-camera abstraction to dissolve the specifics of landscapes, subverting photography’s typical emphasis on clarity. In Ma (2020), created during the pandemic, she collaborated with dancers from the National Ballet of Canada—stripped of their usual stage—to explore movement and transcendence beyond the limitations of that moment in time.
Her ongoing practice remains rooted in a sense of emotional sincerity, with each series offering a poetic meditation on presence, transformation, and the ephemeral nature of experience.
RELATED EDUCATION
1994 Vancouver Film School; Vancouver, BC, Canada
1995 Apprenticeship in fine art and commercial photographic printing; Pacifc Light Impressions, Vancouver, BC, Canada
1997–2001 Photographic production for fine art and commercial photographers; Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles; Ed Rusche, Scott McFarland, Kelly Wood, Harmony Korine, Jeff Wall and others.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019 Lyceum Gallery, Toronto, ON, Canada; Soft Stories
2019 Gitana Rosa, Artsy Brooklyn, NY, United States; Soft Stories
2019 Yorkville Village, Toronto, ON, Canada; Endless Gone
2012 Cava, Toronto, ON, Canada; Permanent Collection aquisition
2011 The Department Gallery, Toronto, ON, Canada; Suit of Lights (in collaboration with Nick Fairhead)
2008 Skyworks Foundation; Selected images from Kids Care documentary flm
2003 Artemis Gallery, Seattle, WA, United States; Megan at 28
2003 Women of Wisdom conference, Seattle, WA, United States; Megan at 28
2002 Third Avenue Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Megan at 28
2001 Third Avenue Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Behold(her)
1999 Third Avenue Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Listen
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 The Lyceum Gallery, Dual exhibit with Patty Zuver
2020 Soft Stories, Arta Gallery, Toronto, ON, Canada
2019 In the Mood, Endless Gone, Toronto, ON, Canada
2019 CAPUSA Gallery, New York, NY, United States; Scope Art Show Miami
2019 Art Wynwood, Miami, FL, United States; Soft Stories, Contemporary Arts Projects Miami
2018 Art Basel, Miami, FL, United States; Scope Art Show Miami, Contemporary Arts Projects Miami
2018 Cube Art Fair, Vogelsang Gallery, New York City, USA
2017 Nuit Rose Arts Festival, Toronto, ON, Canada
2005 CBC Radio 3 Canada wide Tour; Megan at 28
2004 Bjornsen Kajiwara Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Megan at 28
COMMISSIONS
2017 LuxtonLand, fashion branding campaign 2018
2011 Pop Sandbox, Kenk, Photographs of Igor Kenk
2009 Penguin Canada, Richard Poplack — The Sheik’s Batmobile
2006 A&M Music, Eric Z. Albums cover and promotional photogrpahy
2007 Shadow Shows, Promo portraits —The Tracey Fragments
2005 House of Anansi Press, book cover, Lisa Moore “Degrees of Nakedness”
2003 House of Anansi Press, book cover, Lisa Moore “Open”
2003 Lynn Crosbie — author, Radiant Boy
1997 Present ShadowShows, director, Bruce MacDonald; Writers, filmmakers, collaborators, includes portraits of Michael Ondaatje, Don Mckellar, Lynn Crosbie and others
COLLECTIONS
Cava Restaurant, Toronto, ON, Canada. Permanent acquisition.
Private collectors; Canada: Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal; United States: New York, Texas, Miami; Germany: Dresden; New Zealand: Auckland; Spain: Valencia.
1997 Now Magazine Toronto, featured artist Sept 1997.
1997 CBC radio Canada interview for Listen.
1997 Exclaim magazine, featured artist for Listen.
1997 Xtra magazine Toronto, featured artist and interview for Listen.
1999 Vie Des Arts magazine. Featured exhibition and review for Behold(h)er.
2005 CBC Radio 3, feature and interview for Megan at 28.
2017 Out TV: Television interview for “T”., Nuit Rose Arts festival.
2020 Blank Spaces Magazine; Cover and insert feature interview for Soft Stories.
2020 Feature interview with Brussels based Art Beyond Borders.
Laura Jane Petelko
Laura Jane Petelko
