Celeste Laborde (b. Birmingham, AL, 1977) has been painting ever since she was old enough to hold a paint brush, and with the exception of a few short periods when she was enamoured with rocks, fossils, and marine life, and dreamt of pursuing science as a career, she has always been focused on the visual arts. She nurtured her love for painting and photography in high school, going on to receive a BFA degree with a concentration in both mediums from the University of Montevallo in 2004. 

While taking a modern dance class at the University of Montevallo (to fulfill a physical education requirement) - she unexpectedly fell in love with dance. Modern dance was exciting and fully embodying storytelling and emotion with physical expression was exhilarating. It was during this time that she was introduced to Butoh (a Japanese dance theater style which emerged immediately following World War II) and everything changed. She has been performing Butoh and improvisational modern dance ever since. 

Butoh was a perfect fit for her personal aesthetic and proclivity for the avant-garde. Completely engrossed with black and white photography at the time - Butoh simply looked and felt like the photographs that she wanted to capture. A few years into her studies, quite possibly spurred by the physicality of dance, Laborde started to focus on more tactile ways of exploring photography and became increasingly interested in the physical act of making large scale paintings and drawings. 

After giving up the darkroom, the love and influence of black and white photography is undeniably still evident in the rich ink based paintings she creates today. 

Laborde’s art practice is intrinsically intertwined with her physical practice. Her paintings and performances are extensions of each other. She takes cues from dance to create paintings that explore the perception of time and intercorporeal communication, and celebrate physical, emotional, and spiritual movement. 

As a student of the New York Butoh Institute, she studies regularly under the Institute’s founder, Vangeline, and has also had the honor of studying and performing with Sankai Juku dancer, Akihito Ichihara. Laborde is also a long time Ashtanga Yoga practitioner and casual runner who lives, works, and performs regularly in New York City.