Mara van Laaren

Mara van Laaren graduated in 2015 from the Wackers Academy in Amsterdam, where she studied under Sam Drukker. She previously studied architecture for several years. She lives and works in Amsterdam.

Van Laaren finds her subjects in the interiors of old Amsterdam buildings. During her graduation, she worked for half a year in the abandoned Groote Museum of Artis. She measures the spaces carefully, creates floor plans and sketches, and then develops these into perspective drawings. She uses these drawings as the basis for multiple paintings of the same subject, often leaving the drawing largely visible in the finished work.

Her paintings depict historical spaces, frequently large and imposing interiors. She works with a sparsely painted tonal approach. The precision of the perspective combined with the quality of light creates a particular atmosphere in her work.