Laura Olenska

I am a French-born painter based in Wellington, New Zealand, where I have lived and worked since 2017.

I am a self-taught artist with a background in art history, cinematography, and opera singing in Paris, and I primarily work with oil on canvas from my Wellington studio.

I build my paintings through layered classical techniques while developing contemporary psychological and narrative atmospheres. Most of my work emerges from imagination: dreams, visions, memories, desires, fears, and fragments of personal experience. Each painting carries a subtle connection to my inner world.

I often conceive my compositions like still frames from an unseen story. Rather than delivering fixed messages, I aim to create paintings that invite questions, and ambiguity.

Having begun my artistic journey relatively recently, I am gradually moving towards a deeper exploration of human desire, projection, and the importance human beings give to their own stories and emotions within a far wider world.

History of art, Cinematography

• MAY 2026 : NZ Art Show - Artist on site, Wellington NZ
• MAY - JUNE 2026 : Between Us - Group show / Depot Art space, Auckland NZ
• OCTOBER 2026 : Bloom of Decay - Group show, Thistle Hall, Wellington
• DECEMBER 2026 : Memento Mori - Solo show, Covenant, Welllington