About Laura Buys

Laura Buys is an American contemporary artist known for sculptural paintings defined by texture, luminous materials, and symbolic form.

Buys and her artwork have been featured in major museums, including the Everson Museum of Art, the National Veterans Resource Center, and the National Veterans Memorial and Museum.

She is a recipient of First Place in Mixed Media at the New York Veterans Creative Arts Competition and has exhibited in Miami Art Week. Her original art has been featured in leading galleries and is held in private collections around the world.

Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, Buys is now based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Working in sand, crystal, glass, stones, acrylic, and metallic pigments, she hand builds each surface through a meticulous layering process. Her practice blends intuition with precision, allowing form, texture, and light to shape richly dimensional works with strong physical presence.

The Story Behind

Before becoming a full-time artist, Buys served as an Intelligence Analyst in the United States Air Force, deploying to the Middle East at just twenty years old. She later worked as a social worker serving some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations, holding space for human fragility and the full spectrum of lived experience.

Committed to lifelong learning and leadership, Buys is a Tillman Scholar holding a Bachelor’s degree in Women’s and Gender Studies from Syracuse University, a Master's Degree in Social Work, and is currently pursuing Interdisciplinary Arts at Eckerd College. As demand for her work grew, she transitioned into art full time, bringing lived experience, discipline, and depth into her creative practice.

An interdisciplinary artist, Buys’ engagement with performance art - including appearances in music videos, fashion shows, television, and on stage in The Vagina Monologues - informs the emotional presence and embodied quality of her visual work.

At the core of her practice remains one guiding principle: empowerment through art.