Laura Milkins
Tuscon, Arizona
Visual artist
Laura Milkins is an interdisciplinary artist living in Tucson, AZ. Her work explores vulnerability, intimacy, and cultural norms, using variety of media: online-interactive performance, video, drawing, painting, and live radio/podcasting. Through storytelling, her work examines the connection between technology, the environment, and the female body in Western culture. Her current project, Of Birds and Men, is a series of twenty-six portraits of men in power who have been accused of sexual misconduct. Each man is accompanied by an exquisitely-drawn bird who shares his first initial. Past work includes Zero Packaging Project, a year without packaging; The Depression Session, a radio show devoted to de-stigmatizing depression; and Walking Home: stories from the desert to the Great Lakes, in which Milkins walked 2,007 miles from Arizona to Michigan wearing a live webcam. Her work has been exhibited across the United States and in France. She has received grants, awards, and international recognition for her work including a Fulbright award to travel and work in Mexico City. Since receiving a Tanne Foundation award, Milkins traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico to develop new projects and reconnect with local artists. Upon return to the United States, she began “In Search of the Great America”, a weekly podcast road trip including short video interviews with citizens of the largest city and smallest town in each state, asking about their great America: past, present, and future. Due to COVID19, the journey continues in virtual form.
This bio/description was originally published in 2019 and updated in 2020. For more current information, please refer to the award recipient's website (if provided).