Laura Myntti

Background

Laura Myntti was born in Minnesota, and lived in Sioux City, Iowa and San Diego before settling in Salt Lake City in 1968. She then moved to Newburgh, Indiana in 1977 was married in 1985, then moved to Anchorage, Alaska. This marriage ended in divorce in 1988 when Myntti left to attend Kansas State University. She created art in Boston, London, and New York before residing in River Forest, Illinois for over a decade. Myntti has two children, a son (born 1993) and a daughter (born 1997).

Myntti attended Indiana University for one semester before transferring to University of Idaho. In 1982, Myntti took a semester off to work in New York as a temporary editorial assistant at the UNICEF headquarters. She returned to the University of Idaho to graduate with a BFA, Fine Art in 1984, spent one summer in Houston, Texas and moved on to study at the University of Paris-Sorbonne (then University of Paris IV) where she obtained a Certificats de Langue et Civilisation , French, Philosophy in 1985.

She was invited in 2005 to work with a master printmaker at Self Help Graphics & Art as a non-political artist to add diversity to the works of the community arts center, a politically and culturally driven center for artwork.

Artistic Approach

The Oak Park Journal said that "Ms. Myntti's work is inspired by the daily experiences of life, including interpersonal relationships, family and marriage. She often uses vivid, expressive colors in her paintings." The Spokesman-Review described the vibrant, expressive colors and simplified forms in her paintings as being "reminiscent of the early 20th-century Fauve movement", and also quoted her to have acknowledged that her art professors at the University of Idaho always said she was never afraid to use color, she is attracted to discordant colors. "These paintings are experimental and fun", wrote Jan Ingram – in the Anchorage Daily News of January 30, 1994 – about some exhibited work of Laura Myntti. "They tell stories of domesticity, relationships won and lost, feelings expressed and repressed, experience gained and given", admitted Lianne Williamson – two years later in the same newspaper – about her exhibited works at the Nordic Heritage Museum. She also acknowledged that "with regard to style, Myntti has stated that her influence are deeply rooted in the modernist tradition".

According to Eric Swenson in the Anchorage Daily News, "for Fairbanks painter and printmaker David Mollett, "humor is one of Myntti's many strengths. Most artists are so serious. Without cartooning or being cute or charming, Laura manages to be very funny. Her humor is good natured and subtle, but there's also and edge there, that comes from her sincerity.""

Works of Art

There are many recognized pieces of artwork by Laura Myntti. Some include:

In the words of Ralph J.Bellantoni, as published in the Courier News of April 27, 2000, "Myntti works along thematic lines and has evolved a number of series of prints and paintings over the course of her career". Some other recognized series of artwork by Laura Myntti include: "relationships series", "party series" and "piano series".

"The work Myntti is best known for is her portrayals of human subjects amidst rich interiors. She takes moments from her subjects' lives and paints a story about them." This acknowledgment is by Alice Whitaker in the First City Scene section of the Ketchikan Daily News of March 5–6, 1999.

Collections

Laura Myntti's artwork is in the permanent collections of many museums, including:

According to Pioneer Press, "Myntti's missile/aircraft-inspired collection creates a combined tone of delirium and audacity".

Catalogs