ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
As an oil painter having the deepest respect for Renaissance Art and a love for Abstract Surrealism, LauraLi seeks to unify seemingly opposing forces in her work: abstraction and representation, free association and deliberate planning, flat pattern and 3 dimensional space; thereby creating an image where dream, myth and substance may inhabit the same imaginal world. Usually, she depicts this world within a landscape.
LauraLi’s color sensibilities were well defined by the time she attended art school; after having lived among the topical hues of Hawaii, the forest of the Cumberland Plateau, and the vast skies of the southern Great Plains. She earned her B.F.A. in Painting at the University of Illinois. Afterwards, she moved to the Flint Hills and then relocated to the Kansas City Area, where she now lives and works.
She has exhibited in local and regional venues. Although she still paints on canvas, most of her current work is focused on small paintings that are in oil over a gouache underpainting, on paper.
Deines Cultural Center
EDUCATION
B.F.A. in Painting (85) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2025 Neoteric Abstract XIII, (group) Limner Gallery, Hudson, NY
2023 Things I saw in the Sky, (2 person) Shafer Art Gallery, Barton Community College, Great Bend, KS
2018 Things Bright and Beautiful, (group) Strecker Nelson West Gallery, Manhattan, KS
2018 The Divine Feminine, Interpretations of the Goddess, (group) Steeple of Light Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2017 Paintings by LauraLi Imel, (solo) Deines Cultural Center, Russell, KS
2017 Views of the Future, (group) Paper Birch Landing Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2016 Exhibition, (group) The Jones Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2016 Abstract National Exhibition, (group) Marks Arts (formally Wichita Center for the Arts), Wichita, KS
2013 34th Annual Westport Art Fair, (group), Kansas City, MO
2010 Visions of the Flint Hills – Art Benefit and Sale, (group) Buttonwood Art Space, Kansas City, MO
2006 Now Showing program of the Kansas City (BCA), (solo) 360 Architecture, Kansas City, MO
2001 The Grand Nude Show 2001, (group) The Hobbs Building, Kansas City, MO
2000 Red Colors, Symbols, and Emotions, (group) Gallery 214, Montclair, NJ
1998 Cultures Without Borders, (group) Bisceglia Italian Cultural Center, Kansas City, MO
1995 Topeka Art Guild Summer Exhibition, (group) Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library Gallery of Arts, Topeka, KS
1994 Virtual: Zenana (group) An Exhibition of Women Artist, Sponsored by the Women’s Studies Department, Kansas State University, Manhattan KS
1994 Showcase Manhattan (group) The Manhattan Arts Council, Juror: Don Perry, Professor of Art Emporia State University, Manhattan, KS
1991 Showcase Manhattan (group) The Manhattan Arts Council, Juror: Deborah Emond Scott, Curator for The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO