The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
2024 Ohio Artist Registry Juried Exhibition
Lauren Wells
ArtistBio
Lauren Wells is an artist who lives and works in Dayton, Ohio. She was introduced to drawing and painting early by parents who had a love for art and creativity. Originally from Dallas, Texas, she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from the University of Texas in Austin, as well as her Masters in Global Policy Studies from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.
Her oil paintings explore narrative themes of memory, ranging from nostalgia to grief and anxiety, often expressing how one processes those thoughts through the use of color, repetition, and the blending of painterly and stylized forms. Often her work includes natural, landscape, and structural forms. People, events, and travels from her life inspire the subject matter while Remidos Varo’s surrealism, Frida Kahlo’s symbolic introspection, and Mary Blair’s use of color and shape inspire the style. Her painting “Marfa” received first place in the 2020 Dayton Society of Artists (DSA) Members Show. In 2021, her painting “Sandpiper” also won first place in the DSA Members show. In 2023, her painting “Hornets and Magnolias” received honorable mention at the Miamisburg Art Gallery Juried Show.
She is also active in the Cincinnati and Dayton area Urban Sketchers groups. She loves traveling locally and internationally and documenting her environment through sketching. Her sketches were included in a 2018 Cincinnati CityBeat write-up on Urban Sketching and in the January 2020 Cincinnati Urban Sketchers exhibit at the Stay and Wonder Gallery at Columbia Plaza in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her urban sketch of downtown Dayton, Ohio won “Best Watercolor” at the 2022 DSA Members Show.