Laura Pasquino

Pretty Brilliant Women in the Arts

Article

No. 38 • May 2025

For generations, the story of art has been told through a singular lens. When the first editions of canonical books like Janson’s History of Art and Gombrich’s The Story of Art were published, they featured zero women artists. The Pretty Brilliant: Women in the Arts series aims to make whole what has long been a one-sided story. In these issues, featuring 583 artists, we celebrate women who have always been creating, innovating, and inspiring, like Laura Pasquino.

text: Catherine de Zegher

Fig 1. Laura Pasquino

Born in Estonia, Laura Pasquino (b. 1987) is a ceramic artist living in Amsterdam. ‘My inspiration comes from working with the clay itself,’ she claims, ‘I am a nature lover and like to observe and take references from the forces and formations of the natural world.’

Inspired by archaeological finds, Pasquino’s works celebrate the primal rawness and timeless tactility of the earth, embracing its sensual simplicity, uniqueness, and colours. She considers the sphere, its sense of rhythm and recurrence in her art, as a powerful and protective organic shape.

Fig 2. Laura Pasquino, 3 Untitled sculptures, 2023, ceramic, 22 × 24 cm; 26 × 27 cm; 37 × 31 cm | © Sacha Verbeek & Janne Wellens

The artist always leaves traces of her hands and fingers in the clay, emphasising a connection with the material she loves while not refraining to leave flaws and cracks in the curvaceous forms – a balanced clay universe of imperfection, an interplay between art and nature.

Laura Pasquino is featured in See All This #38: Pretty Brilliant Women in the Arts Vol. III. Order a copy here.