2024 John Kurtich Scholarship Foundation Winner

Linda Laino - Her newest series of figurative paintings are compositionally elegant and visually refined. The elegance is the result of her mastery of brushwork, revealing a true dedication to the art-making process few artists achieve. The brushwork combined with a refined color palette make these paintings a visual pleasure to devour. Several of the paintings are presented as diptychs, a bold compositional element that transforms and connects two painted panels into a single work of art, once used extensively for painting altarpieces. This nod to an altar-like quality in her paintings highlights that art can accomplish more than mere visual pleasure, by inviting the viewer to enter a spiritual realm that is often evident in Laino’s work. These paintings require pause, reflection, and a silence that is at the very heart of her investigation.