I think of painting as a container—something that can hold the weight of complicated experiences, emotional contradictions, and fragments of care. Much of my work stems from navigating chronic illness, but it’s never just about the body. It’s about the rooms we build around ourselves, the objects we carry, the landscapes that witness us. I borrow from the language of domesticity, ornithology, and folk material culture, folding them into scenes that feel both personal and collective. I want to create work that acknowledges fragility but also insists on beauty—that doesn’t resolve grief, but sits with it, like a houseplant leaning toward the light.Lauryn (Red) Welch
Lauryn Welch (b. 1991, Hanover, New Hampshire) is a visual artist and filmmaker who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. A longtime resident of the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire, Welch holds an MFA in Studio Art from Hunter College (2023) and a BFA in Painting from Purchase College. Through painting, video, and collaborative filmmaking, their work explores the language of care and the architecture of intimacy—particularly how experiences of illness, healing, and home are shaped by both interior and exterior landscapes.
Deeply rooted in the ecology of place, Welch’s visual language draws from locally accessible nature, ornithology, and craft histories, balancing personal narratives with collective ones. Their paintings, often marked by saturated palettes and layered compositions, articulate moments of vulnerability, domestic ritual, and embodied presence. Through symbolic gestures and subtle references to plant life, birds, and home interiors, their work considers the porous boundary between the body and its surroundings—how the spaces we inhabit can be both shelter and site of transformation.
Welch is also active in film, co-directing The Body is a House of Familiar Rooms (2021) with Eloise Sherrid—a short documentary acquired by PBS that addresses chronic illness through architectural metaphor. The film received widespread acclaim, winning Best Documentary Short at Indie Memphis, Best of Festival at Superfest Disability Film Festival, and screening at Hot Docs, BAMcinemaFest, and The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, among others.
Their recent solo exhibition at Half Gallery in New York (2023) marked a milestone in a growing national and international presence, with past exhibitions across New England, the Midwest, Miami, London, and Palm Springs.
Alongside their studio practice, Welch has taught painting and drawing at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, RISD’s Pre-College Program, and MassArt’s Continuing Education Program. They also served as gallery manager and curator at the Sharon Arts Center in New Hampshire, and have led international workshops with Art Prof, a free online arts education platform.
Through visual art and film, Lauryn Welch builds fragile, resonant worlds that hold the complexities of care—both the pain and the possibility—in close view.