About Laura Annala

Laura Annala x Uhana — photo: Mira Vanttaja

Born in 1985, living and working in Lapua, Finland.

Laura Annala built her career as an entrepreneur from the age of eighteen. At thirty-two, a diagnosis of malignant brain cancer took that life apart — the businesses, the certainty, the plans. Learning to live with brain damage and chronic migraine, she returned to something she had lost long before: painting. It began as a way to survive, and it has not stopped since.

Photo: Mira Vanttaja

Color is the signature of her work — bold and unapologetic, often carried through still life and fashion-inspired figures that hold more than they show. There is rarely a simple story behind a painting.

Laura's work has been noticed by curators, media and collectors alike. Painting remains part of her ongoing rehabilitation — made possible by the people closest to her.

"For me, art presents freedom. I love the feeling of nervousness that comes with never knowing in advance what a painting requires from me to be finished. In front of a blank canvas, accompanied only by my ideas of the becoming painting, I feel that I'm most connected to my deeper self. It is soothing and calming to know there is only me and colors that together create something beautiful. To know I have that magic in me."