Catherine Laubin

Catherine Laubin
Name	Catherine Laubin
Birth date	1970s
Birth place	Paris, France
Nationality	French-American
Field	Painting, Sculpture, Installation
Training	École des Beaux-Arts, New York University
Movement	Contemporary art, Figurative painting

Catherine Laubin Catherine Laubin is a contemporary painter and installation artist known for figurative work that intersects with theater, literature, and visual culture. Her practice engages with portraiture, still life, and urban scenes while referencing historical painting, theatrical staging, and modernist discourses. Laubin’s career spans exhibitions in major museums, collaborations with performing arts institutions, and teaching positions at prominent art schools.

Early life and education

Laubin was born in Paris and raised between Paris and New York City, where exposure to institutions such as the Louvre Museum, the Musée d'Orsay, and the Museum of Modern Art shaped her visual vocabulary. Her formative studies included attendance at the École des Beaux-Arts and a graduate program at New York University, where she encountered faculty and visiting artists affiliated with movements connected to Abstract Expressionism, Postmodernism, and Figurative painting. During this period she undertook residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and the MacDowell Colony, and studied archives at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the New York Public Library.

Career

Laubin’s early career developed through gallery exhibitions in Paris, London, and New York City, with early shows at alternative spaces influenced by curators associated with the Whitney Biennial and the Tate Modern programming. She later mounted solo exhibitions at commercial galleries that had previously shown artists linked to David Hockney, Lucian Freud, and Alice Neel. Institutional recognition followed with survey invitations from regional museums connected to the Smithsonian Institution network and collaborations with performing arts organizations such as the Lincoln Center and the National Theatre. Laubin has taught painting and drawing at universities including Columbia University, the School of Visual Arts, and the Rhode Island School of Design, and has served on juries for awards administered by the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Academy in Rome.

Major works and exhibitions

Laubin’s oeuvre includes several notable series and installations. Early series exhibited in the Chelsea Art District referenced tableaux linked to Henri Matisse and Édouard Manet and were shown alongside group exhibitions about European painting traditions curated in collaboration with staff from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A mid-career survey at a museum associated with the Getty Foundation juxtaposed Laubin’s canvases with works by Francis Bacon, Willem de Kooning, and Pablo Picasso to frame dialogues about figuration and corporeality. Her installation projects have been commissioned by the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Walker Art Center and staged sets for productions at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Opéra National de Paris. Selected exhibitions include participation in thematic shows organized by the Venice Biennale, the Documenta network, and touring exhibitions coordinated by the Institut du Monde Arabe.

Style and techniques

Laubin’s style synthesizes painterly traditions from Baroque painting to Modernism, combining dense brushwork with meticulous draftsmanship reminiscent of Gustave Courbet and Édouard Vuillard. Her palettes often reference the chromatic experiments of Joan Mitchell and Nicolas Poussin, while her compositional staging draws on scenography principles used at the Comédie-Française and the Royal Opera House. Technically, Laubin works in oil on linen, encaustic, and mixed-media collage, integrating found objects sourced from flea markets in Montparnasse and antique dealers from Soho, Manhattan. She uses underpainting techniques taught in ateliers associated with the Académie Julian and employs glazing methods that echo practices documented in conservation reports from the National Gallery (London).

Awards and recognition

Laubin has received grants and fellowships from institutions such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. She was awarded residencies at the American Academy in Rome and the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, and honored with prizes administered by the Prince Pierre Foundation and regional cultural councils linked to the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec. Critics from publications tied to the New York Times, the Guardian (London), and Artforum have documented her work in feature reviews and career retrospectives.

Personal life and influence on contemporary art

Laubin lives and works between Brooklyn and Paris, maintaining studio partnerships with peer artists associated with the New York School and European figurative circles. Her pedagogical roles have influenced cohorts of painters who have gone on to exhibit at venues like the Saatchi Gallery and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Curators and critics draw connections between her practice and broader currents exemplified by artists such as Kerry James Marshall, Marlene Dumas, and Elizabeth Peyton, noting how Laubin’s staging of subjects contributes to contemporary debates about representation in museum programming at institutions like the Tate Modern and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Category:Contemporary painters Category:French-American artists