Laura Romaine is a painter who builds realms of artifice and exaggeration. Whether animal, human, or some fusion of the two, her inimitable figures offer a feeling of playfulness and carnality. Her oil and acrylic paintings reconfigure the indignities of late-stage capitalism into absurdist scenes which delight in the tactile splendor of painting. Romaine grew up in Central Florida, and acquired a BFA from Ringling School of Art and Design. She received an MFA from New York Academy of Art, which in 2023 awarded her with the prestigious annual Chubb Fellowship.