Lauren Karjala

Lauren Karjala (b. 1991, Chester, NH) is a figurative painter based in the seacoast community of New Hampshire. She received a BFA in painting from the University of New Hampshire in 2014. Lauren has been exhibited widely throughout New England, and her work has been featured in three issues of Vanity Fair UK (2022) and the I Like Your Work Podcast Catalog (2023).

Lauren’s work was featured in ‘Dreamlands,’ on view April 12-27, 2025.

“These paintings exist in the space between night and dreaming. They move through fragments—of memory, of symbol, of something half-remembered, of dreams. Figures appear and fade, caught between presence and disappearance. The work leans toward naturalism, not in pursuit of realism, but as a way of grounding the ephemeral. Bodies, gestures, and landscapes emerge as echoes of lived experience and unconscious thought. Nature appears as both setting and symbol—a mirror for internal states, a place of refuge, a quiet witness. These images aren’t fixed in narrative; they shift between reality and imagination. They offer a visual meeting place where the personal and collective overlap. In weaving through these spaces, I search for closeness to something that is just outside the limits of understanding.”