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STATEMENT
 

Much of my current and recent work entails a digital/painting mixed-media process: After looking through lucite models of the five basic Platonic solids* a few years ago, I became fascinated by their capacity to distort the visual field, along with their transparency and internally reflected light.  I gradually developed a process to recreate that experience, entailing flat reflective or pearlescent supports shaped to the 2D visual contours of these solids.   I incorporated botanical imagery and applied digital post-processing towards abstraction.  These two-dimensional works can initially appear to be spatial, an effect arising from their unusual shapes and symmetries. They foster a direct experience of perception as an active process: our brains try to make sense of 3D reality using cues from our direct retinal input.  It’s usually accurate, but at times presents us with a misleading interpretation. 

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I ultimately realized that this body of work is, in a sense, autobiographical. It comes from my lifelong interests and experiences as an artist with a scientific background; as someone with both M.D. and M.F.A. degrees.  I like to think of this work’s colorful bio-organic imagery as arising “naturally” from its geometric formats. Consider that ancient philosophers regarded the five Platonic solids* as the building blocks of the universe. This is an unfamiliar take on reality, but not that far from our current physical understanding.  Thinking about this historical background elicits, for me, an uncanny feeling. 

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Starting early 2026, I've developed this practice further into a series I refer to as “framed”.  The original geometric shape is duplicated on a larger scale as a coordinated painted background and frame. This framing device augments the perceptual impact in a challenging yet visually aesthetic manner.

 

*The five Platonic solids are the tetrahedron, the cube, the octahedron, the dodecahedron and the icosahedron.  Each has a specific number of identical faces (4, 6, 8, 12, 16, respectively) meeting at identical edges and corners. The faces are all triangular except those of the octahedron, which are pentagonal.  Ancient thinkers correctly concluded that five, and only five, solids with these characteristics can be constructed.  

BIO

Laurence Elias’ engagement with art has been deep and long-standing. His commitment to full-time art-making came late in life, after careers in medical practice, research, and teaching. Upon retirement from medicine, he entered CCA’s graduate program and received an MFA in 2018. While at CCA and since, Elias developed idiosyncratic processes using unusual materials and techniques, including drawings with hand-woven, painted string and a multistep photographic and digital process realized on shaped pieces of acrylic sheet and wood panels. These challenge perception while integrating biomorphic abstraction and geometry. He thinks of this combination as tracing the emergence of complex organic patterns from simple elements. He completed his undergraduate education at Princeton University, where he studied chemistry as well as Mahayana Buddhism and the Philosophy of Art. He earned his MD at Stanford, where he also squeezed in some undergraduate drawing and painting classes. After completing his medical training at Stanford, he was a Professor of Medicine at the University of New Mexico, ultimately returning to the Bay Area in 2001.



RESUMÉ

Born in Brooklyn, NY, resides and works in Berkeley, CA.
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​Exhibitions:
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Two-Person and Solo:

  • 2025: Secret Life of Plants, Cedar Street Gallery, Berkeley, CA 

  • 2024: Field of Vision, with Sandra Kelch, Gearbox Gallery, Oakland, CA 

  • 2019: Reflect/Spirit/Light at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA 

 
Group Shows, Juried or Curated:

2026

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2025

  • ​Photography Unbound, at Nizza Knoll, Denver, CO

  • Prime Time at Covet Gallery, Oceanside CA

2024

  • Sessions 06 and 07, Galeria Azur, Berlin, Germany

  • Cut Paste Create, The Art of Collage at Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA.  Juried by Rangsook Yoon, Sr. Curator, Sarasota Art Museum, and Kimberly Acebo Arteche, Co-Executive Director, Berkeley Art Center

  • Connected at Gallery Route One, Pt. Reyes Station, CA. Juried by TaVee Lee, Gallery Manager, Transmission Gallery, Oakland

2023

  • Within Sight or From Imagination at Gearbox Gallery, Oakland, CA, Juried by Jeremy Morgan, artist

  • Abstract 2023, Awarded Prize (3rd place), New York Center for Photographic Art, https://www.nyc4pa.com/abstract-2020-21and Print Catalogue,  Juried by Darren Ching of Klompching Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2022

  • Blessed Unrest at Gallery Route One, Point Reyes Station, CA. Juried by Jack Fischer of Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco

​2021​

  • Crossing The Divide, at Gallery Route One, Point Reyes Station, CA, Juried by Donna Seager of Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA

2020

  • Fragments at ARC Gallery, San Francisco, Juried by Jen Tough, Jen Tough Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

  • Out of the Box, Healdsburg Center for the Arts, Healdsburg, CA

  • California Open, 15th Annual National Competition, TAG Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Juried by Kate Mothes, Curator of Young Space, and Dovetail Magazine

  • Some Speechless Thing (Part II of Annual Members Show) at Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA, Juried from Part I open submissions by Griff Williams, Gallery 16, San Francisco 

2019

  • The Naked Print at Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, Providence, RI, Juried by Stephen Fisher, Professor, Art Department, Rhode Island College, Providence

  • Art + Movement at Gearbox Gallery, Oakland, CA, Juried by Maria Porges, Artist, Writer, and Faculty member, California College of the Arts, San Francisco

2018

  • Caught in the Fray, 14th Annual Textiles Exhibition, at College Street Gallery, Oakland, CA, Curated by Josh Faught, California College of the Arts

  • California College of the Arts M.F.A. Show at Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA

  • Wave-Forms at Embark Gallery, Oakland, CA, Juried by Leila Grothe, Assoc Curator, Wattis Institute, San Francisco and Baltimore Museum of Art

2017

  • Making/Thinking at Hubble Street Gallery, San Francisco, Curated by Shaun O’Dell, California College of the Arts 

  • 5th Annual Juried Art Show at the Piedmont Center for the Arts Piedmont, CA

2016

  • Krowsworkers/FARM at Krowswork Gallery, Oakland, CA, Curated by Jasmine Moorhead

2015​

  • Drawn to Line at UCBX Gallery, San Francisco, CA

  • Collect! at Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA

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Press:

  • Studio Visit (a print periodical) Vol.48, pp 62-65 (2021)  

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Education:

  • California College of the Arts,  M.F.A., 2018 

  • Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Visual Arts, UC Berkeley Extension, San Francisco, 2016 

  • Art Coursework and Workshops (1966-2016):  

    • U.C. Berkeley Extension

    • Stanford University 

    • Stanford University Continuing Studies

    • Kala Institute (Berkeley)

    • University of New Mexico 

    • Harwood Foundation (Albuquerque, NM)  

    • Princeton University

  • Stanford University, M.D., 1972 

  • Princeton University, A.B., 1967

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