Laila Azra (b. 1970, Indonesia) the Singapore-based Indonesian mixed media artist known for her multi-layered and intricate abstract canvases. Laila views painting as a passage to explore her roots and identity by finding and realizing her personal voice and purpose in life. Issues surrounding culture and life encounters thus remain a common theme. “Our understanding of what we see is conditioned by our personal and social cultural experience,” she says.

Graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in Western Abstract Painting, the influences of Abstract Expressionism techniques made popular in 1940s by the likes of Jason Pollock, Willem De Kooning and Mark Rothko, resonate in Azra’s art making. She adapted gestural painting method where she uses her hands and body movement to drip, splash, and scrape on a canvas often positioned flat on the floor. This resulted in bold, rhythmic lines and texture-rich artworks, which are characterised by the weaving and interweaving layers of acrylic paint as well as her other chosen mediums.