Dion Laurent
of Houston
"AirPlane 1"
Kolanowski Studio
"AirPlane 1" at dusk
A fourth-generation visual and performative artist with studios now in Houston and Bastrop, Dion Laurent spent 7 years traveling the world after college—with a backpack of supplies—covering 23 countries and creating and exhibiting works all along the way. He has lived and maintained studios around the globe, including six years in Tokyo and throughout Asia, including a small Japanese island in the Pacific. Laurent’s large-as-life sculpture “AirPlane 1” for True North 2024 is made of wood, aluminum, steel, plexiglass, batteries, tires, electric motor, solar panels, generator, lights, PVC, plants, soil and water—a conceptually-imagined work designed to specifically run on wind and solar energy and produce bio-regenerative life support for outer space explorer, "EarthMan 1."
Laurent attended Texas A&M University, College Station, and Belmont University, Nashville, and has exhibited extensively, including shows at the 1940 Air Terminal Museum, Hobby Airport, Houston, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, Art Car Museum, Houston, Poissant Gallery, Houston, Texas A&M University Visual Arts Gallery, College Station, Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, Guardian Garden Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, and HTTP Gallery, London, England. He has held his unique brand of art performances, including Earthman, at Tate Modern, London, Art Basel, Miami Beach, Art Chicago, Louvre, Paris, and Espace d’Animation des Blancs-Manteaux, Paris.