Artist Profile Angela Laier
Angela Laier, Trophy Wife, 2025, Wall Installation comprised of salvaged handmade doilies and encaustic (beeswax and damar resin) mounted on repurposed trophy shields, 23.6″ x 15.7″ x 3.5″ (600 mm x 400 mm x 90 mm).
Laier’s incisive, intricate works reframe domestic craft as vital critique.
Artist Statement
The rough arthritic hands
The tired squinting eyes
Focusing in the low glow of the kerosene lamp
The time
The patience
The creativity
And not one doily has a link
To the name of the maker
The Art of the Doily, Marge Engelman
Artist Biography
I’ve been a practicing artist my whole life, but more recently have borne the title of mother and wife. Upholding all titles is at the best of times, a struggle; at worst, impossible. Likewise, compartmentalising is futile—one cannot exactly “switch off” from being a mother, nor an artist. And so, I use my practice to better understand the role of the mother/wife both today, and historically.
This work Trophy Wives is a satirical look at the ever-enduring “ideal-woman/-wife/-mother” and touches upon themes of etiquette, servitude, wealth, class, gender disparity and suburban ennui. It’s a collaborative piece that employs the work of multiple unknown women. I treat each hand-woven artifact with locally sourced beeswax and damar resin in order to sculpt them into yonic forms, before mounting them on a trophy shield.
BFA Central Saint Martins (UK) 2011
MFA Bauhaus University (DE) 2014