ABOUT

Laura de Coninck graduated from Sint-Lucas School of Arts in Antwerp, as a Master in Visual Arts. Immediately after her studies, she worked as an illustrator for publications such as Knack, Weekend Knack, De Standaard der Letteren, Vacature and Vrij Nederland. She combines art projects with beauty journalism (Libelle, Marie Claire, l’Officiel,…) to write about perfumes. In 2021 she graduates (Magna cum Laude) with a second master's degree at the PXL School Of Arts in Olfactory art, as the only and first master's student of Olfactory Artist Peter de Cupere. Laura had the unique opportunity to do an internship at Givaudan Perfumes in Paris, one of the most renowned perfume houses in the world, with master perfumer Sonia Constant as her mentor (whose creations include Narciso Rodriguez, Tom Ford, Gaultier, Guerlain and her own brand Ella K). Since then Laura is allowed to work on her own projects as an artist in residence at Givaudan, as the first 'Olfactory artist'. Laura uses scents to add an extra dimension to her sculptures and paintings and she also creates perfumes. Her first perfume for the Belgian brand ‘Hedgren’ (in cooperation with Sonia Constant) was an instant hit and won the ‘Best Belgian Beauty Product of the Year Award in 2023.

Her work and expo’s:

2024 Laura will have an artistic project as an olfactory artist at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp (KMSKA) this coming winter.

In januari 2025 her paintings will be showcased globally, as her unique artistic vision and creations have inspired the Swedish luxury brand Limitato to incorporate her artwork into their clothing line. Each piece from this collection comes with an art certificate just like her paintings. These exclusive items are sold only in high-end stores like Harrods in London and Saks on New York’s Fifth Avenue,… combined with an exhibition in the most renowned art galleries.

In April 2023, Laura participated in the exhibition Nasi Per Arte at the Palazzo Merulana in Rome, curated by Joanna De Vos and Melania Rossi, alongside some of the biggest names in Belgian and Italian art, including Jan Fabre, Michaël Borremans, Sophie Muller, Daniele Puppi, and many more, with her sculpture ‘Return of the Good Breast Lost’ featuring a giant faux fur breast that invites touch, although it is its scent that transports you back to this primal source of happiness: the fabric is infused with the fragrance of mother’s milk.

During the summer or 2023 ‘Return of the Good Breast Lost’ was part of Shame Gallery Brussels of Nathan French, together with some sculptures in Clay and paintings of her ‘Objet Petit a’ serie.

May (2023): Laura was once again invited to Rome for a new group exhibition by Joanna De Vos titled ‘The Clown Spirit’ at the Galerie Mucciaccia, next to artists like Marina Abramovich, Jan Fabre, Tom Liekens, Peter de Cupere,… with a painting ‘Pierrot in Turquoise’ accompanied by a bottle of tears 'Eau de larmes’. Again, in this olfactory work of art, it is the pheromones of tears that influence our perception.

April 2023: Launch of the Hortus Conclusus Tulipa Perfume for Ronald Van Der Hilst.

Februari 2023: Laura was part of the Finis Terrae expo in Antwerp (Geukens & De Vil and Eric Rinckhout) with a fragrance that evokes the scent of the Hortus Conclusus garden of landscape designer Ronald Van der Hilst, with its spring tulips.

2023: The Hedgren perfume received the Best Belgian Beauty product Award, chosen by a jury of Beauty editors and experts. An initiative of Weekend Knack/Le Vif and Feeling magazine.

2022 Launch of the first real perfume for the Belgian brand Hedgren (under the supervision of Sonia Constant and Givaudan Fragrances). Also the bottle is covered with Laura’s paintings, in a graphical design of An Eisendrath. This perfume got a lot of press attention in almost all newspapers and magazines.

2022 Exhibition Saudade for Herman a hommage to Laura’s Father Herman de Coninck in Mechelen, with 70 paintings.

In 2021 Damme kunstfestival (Stichting Ijsberg) exposed her first Olfactory art installation ‘Recovery Of The Good Breast’ of the ‘Objet Petit a’ serie in combination with the scent of mother milk, for which she created a mother milk fragrance in cooperation with Sonia Constant and Givaudan perfumes. With a selection of artworks in clay and some paintings of the ‘Objet petit a’ serie.

In 2021 Laura was part of the ‘Kunstfestival Hof van Wechelen’, with a series of paintings.

In 2019, Laura created the painting series ‘Saudade’ and was featured in the Watou Art Festival with 57 paintings expressing this Portuguese word/emotion. Watou made Saudade the theme of the expo and used one of Laura’s paintings on the poster. For the exhibition, she collaborated with her friend and talented master perfumer Sonia Constant (from Givaudan Perfume), who crafted a special saudade perfume to evoke a synesthetic experience combining visual and olfactory elements. Watou had more than 20000 visitors and had a lot of media attention. It even made the national evening news on VTR 1 with an full reportage.

A book featuring a selection of Saudade paintings was published by Borgerhoff & Lamberigts.

In 2017, curator Jan Hoet Jr. selected Laura de Coninck for a solo exhibition Naar de Letter at the Galerie Van Caelenberg in Aalst, Jan Hoet Jnr is a big name in the Belgian Art world. He is following in the footsteps of his father Jan Hoet. Jan was one of the world’s leading art experts. For more than a quarter of a century he was curator of S.M.A.K, Ghent’s Municipal Museum for Contemporary Art. Naar de Letter was also exhibited at ’T Schaliken in Herentals.

2016: Big solo exhibition in Sd Worx (Antwerp): Conversation in Blue is about expressing the truth in its most pure form, in is a conversation without words, in a language that is universal. Emotions translated in paint about the fragility of love. About the fine lines between guilt and innocence, values and instincts, silence and speaking out, secret and confession.

One of the works included in this exhibition, 'If eyes could speak', was chosen to be shown at the Watou Arts Festival 2017.

2014: Laura was part of the Watou festival in 2014 as well. For this edition she painted in thick etching ink on paper to accompany text excerpts from Bernard Dewulf’s Kleine Dagen (Small Days) and Flikkeringen (Flickerings).

Laura’s Watou works were included in her exhibition in Huis Happaert, in Antwerp. For this she once again drew her inspiration from her father's poems: "The connecting thread of my exhibition is that the paintings always accompany poems or text excerpts: a kind of translation of the text into visual language. The title To The Letter completes the circle. These are the final words of the poem Slaapliedje voor Laura in Gigaro (Lullaby for Laura in Gigaro) that my father wrote for me and about me. You can see my drawings as a response to his poems. I knew him as father not as poet, but the beautiful words he left behind are an inexhaustible source of comfort. People sometimes tell me I make poetry with images, well, that's the best compliment anyone could give me", tell's Laura. At the vernissage Bernard Dewulf read from his wonderful work.

The exhibition was extensively covered by the press (Humo, De Standaard, De Morgen, Citta ...) and was very warmly received:

Laura began her career as an illustrator for major news magazines such as Knack, Weekend Knack, Vrij Nederland, and Marie Claire magazine. By the age of 28 in 2007, she already had a retrospective exhibition in KVS Brussels and De Velinckx in Tongeren. But after years of illustrating, she felt an increasing need to work out her own themes in free work and paintings.

The Antwerp artist consistently receives significant media attention in Belgium with every exhibition and artistic endeavor she undertakes. Laura has been featured in all the Belgian magazines, regularly appears on radio programs, and is also invited to talk shows on television to discuss her art and artistic concepts.

Some quotes:

‘In Watou many attempts have been made to juxtapose poetry and art as closely as possible, some attempts more successful than others. Sometimes, it’s a resounding success: Laura de Coninck, for example, is exhibiting very fine drawings to accompany the poems of her father, Herman de Coninck, the central poet in this edition’, writes Marc Ruyters about Watou in the art magazine Hart. In the same article he calls Laura de Coninck’s work one of the highlights of the exhibition.

‘The sick little daughter from Herman de Coninck’s poem Poëzie is now making poetry herself. Not with words, but with images inspired by his poems.’ - Eva Berghmans in De Standaard

‘Commissioned by Watou Arts Festival in 2013, Laura de Coninck created visual work to accompany the poems of her father, Herman de Coninck, and in 2014 ‘schilderingen’ – a mix of drawing and painting – to accompany Bernard Dewulf’s exquisite texts. The connecting thread of Laura's work is that she knows how to translate each of those texts into an equally sensitive image.’ - Etienne Heylen in Marie Claire

‘The emotional worlds her father could evoke in his unique way, with the right words, Laura evokes with equal authenticity with her subdued interplay of lines, images, ink and paper. I like to read her.’ - Jan Moeyaert, Watou Arts Festival organiser.