Michael LaBua is a self-taught American artist born in Brooklyn, NY in 1986. As an artist, LaBua seeks the directness of his subjects to evoke emotion within his audience. His paintings act as a device to ask questions that delve deep into the caverns of the human psyche. The work primarily consists of large-scale oil paintings which are rendered in the form of detailed realism, typically fashioned within series. Between these series, you begin to see the unraveling of LaBua’s mind. His broad education of world history, culture and philosophy are reflected in sets such as “Amnesia” and “Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust,” he proposes different questions of human origins, the passing of time and the afterlife. While other bodies of work such as “A Semblance” “On Westward” and “In Exile” are littered with allusions to poets and writers such as Charles Bukowski, Arthur Rimbaud, John Steinbeck and David Foster Wallace. These works mirror an inward reflection of the wide range of emotions we confront as humans dealing with issues such as family, trauma, perseverance and the resilience of man in which LaBua believes “such virtues lead one towards humility and nobility.” His new series entitled “Subscription-Based” is a collection of oil paintings and mixed media on wooden panels. This body of work questions the roots of the systemic growth and formation of ideology, culture, human behavior and social stigmatization, giving a glance to an intriguing polarization between current events juxtaposed with humorous undertones. The culmination of LaBua’s work can be described as a type of case study examining humanity, and it’s past, present and future.
