Laura Youngson Coll was born in Co. Durham in 1978 and currently lives and works in London.
Laura began her practice as a maker in fine art, completing her BA(Hons) Fine Art: Sculpture in 2001 and MA Sculpture at The Royal College of Art in 2004. The making process has always been an integral part of her work, but came to the fore after an extensive time training and working with leatherworkers and bookbinders. For a number of years her practice became a working apprenticeship, learning traditional leatherwork and developing a skilled craft practice. In 2013, having gained a high level of technical knowledge, Laura decided to once more begin her own sculptural work. This new approach, using an in depth knowledge of material as a starting point, informs her current practice.
Laura is currently showing in the exhibition Body & Mind: Seen and Unseen at the National Centre for Craft and Design. Her work was exhibited with Joanna Bird Contemporary Collections at Collect 2018. In 2017 Laura was selected as a finalist in The Woman’s Hour Craft Prize , showing at the Victoria and Albert Museum and a subsequent UK tour of the exhibition. She was also selected for the Jerwood Makers Open 2017, which toured after an initial exhibition at the Jerwood Space. In 2017 her work was also shown as part of the exhibition Flora at Ruthin Craft Centre and The New Materiality, a Crafts Council presentation at Tresor Contemporary Craft Fair, Basel.
In 2013 Laura was a commissioned artist in Make the Most, Barrington Court an initiative of Craftspace, Somerset Artworks and The National Trust. In 2014 Laura was awarded the Perrier-Jouët Arts Salon Award with her first solo show at Contemporary Applied Arts. In 2015 Laura exhibited with Contemporary Applied Arts at Collect and was a commissioned artist at the National Trust Garden, Biddulph Grange in ‘Dangerous Discoveries’.