ACO Artist Discussion with Laurel Lukaszewski

Laurel Lukaszewski is a Maryland-based artist who creates installations and sculptures primarily from clay. Her work is influenced by an appreciation of rhythms and patterns found in nature, her study of Japanese art and culture, and work with Japan over the past three decades while promoting U.S.-Japan grassroots exchange.

Laurel has shown her ceramic sculpture throughout the United States and abroad. In addition to solo exhibitions in the Mid-Atlantic region, Huntsville, AL, St. Louis, MO, Tulsa, OK and Bainbridge Island, WA, she has participated in numerous group exhibitions and international art fairs in the District of Columbia, Miami, Palm Beach, New York, Chicago and London. In 2015, her work was exhibited at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as part of the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies Program. In 2021, she received an Independent Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council, and in 2023 was awarded a grant through the MSAC Grants for Artists program. She was awarded the Foreign Minister’s Commendation by the Government of Japan for her longstanding work to promote friendship and mutual understanding between the United States and Japan through the Japan Exchange & Teaching (JET) Program in 2016.

Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Home & Design, American Craft Magazine, Washington City Paper, Riverfront Times, The Virginian-Pilot, Veer Magazine, and others.

Laurel serves on the IA&A Hillyer Advisory Committee, the U.S.-Japan Exchange and Teaching Program Alumni Association (USJETAA) Board of Directors, and is an emeritus director of the National Cherry Blossom Festival Board.

Her studio is in the Gateway Arts District in Mt. Rainier, MD.