Laura Badertscher

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Swiss artist Laura Badertscher’s practice is rooted in figuration, with a strong focus on the human body. Her work explores the tension between the beauty and strangeness of human existence and the ways in which it has been portrayed throughout art history, pop culture, and everyday media. Drawing on a wide range of source materials – from newspapers and magazines to postcards and digitally generated imagery – she engages critically and playfully with the iconography of the body. In recent years, Badertscher has increasingly focused on the genre of the nude and its complex history of representation. By juxtaposing iconic imagery with banal or absurd snapshots, she creates a visual language that can be seductive, humorous, and disconcerting at once. Her painting reflects on the multifaceted tradition of figuration and its ongoing relevance in contemporary art discourse.

Badertscher received her Master of Fine Arts from the National Art School in Sydney in 2018. After several years in Australia, she returned to her hometown of Zurich in 2019. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, including Staged for Elsewhere (with Nici Jost, Villa de Sein, Zurich), Intimität im Alltäglichen (Waschraum, Zurich, 2025), Beyond the Closet (Anggrek Agency, Zurich, 2025), Einsichten 2025 (Kupper Modern, Zurich), as part of Zurich Art Weekend 2024 (Sihlquai 253), and in the duo exhibition Radi Kahlo and Laura Badertscher at MATERIAL, Zurich. In 2023, she presented her solo exhibition FRESH at Kabinett Visarte, Zurich. In 2019, she was a finalist in the Naked & Nude Art Prize Exhibition in Australia. In 2021, she received a grant from the Fondazione Silene Giannini, and one of her works was acquired by the Historisches Museum Baden.