Odd Beings: Larissa Laban

Odd Beings
Paintings by Larissa Laban
January 15 – March 19
Online Exhibition

ALLGORITHIM is pleased to present Odd Beings, an online exhibition of paintings by Larissa Laban, on view from January 15 through March 19. The presentation brings together eight works spanning three interconnected bodies of work: Particular, Cômodo, and a new, untitled series currently in development. Collectively, these paintings offer a distilled view into Laban’s evolving practice—one defined by duality, absence, and the quiet psychology of imagined worlds.

Born in Cabo Frio in 1996, Larissa Laban is a Brazilian visual artist and designer based in São Paulo. Working across airbrush, oil painting, and ceramics, she creates textured, energetically rendered figures that exist within suspended, pared-back environments. Her compositions frequently depict characters floating against minimal grounds, suggesting liminal spaces shaped by solitude, familiarity, and unspoken systems of meaning.

The Particular series draws from Laban’s background in design, exploring duality through both form and technique. Across these works, tensions surface between strength and softness, danger and innocence, fear and comfort—often reflecting the divide between inner and outer selves. Dreamlike and subtly surreal, the paintings employ soft edges, diffused light, and restrained color to create an atmosphere of calm introspection.

In Cômodo, Laban deepens her inquiry into psychological space. Figures—often animals—hover against smooth black backgrounds, accompanied by kitsch objects and uncanny relics such as trinkets, plush forms, and an old telephone. The title refers to the Portuguese word meaning both comfort and complacency, a duality embodied by characters who adapt to solitude and find contentment within closed systems. Through deep, resonant tones and a balance between airbrushed softness and the density of oil paint, Laban constructs a world informed by the concept of umwelt—the idea that each being inhabits its own perceptual reality. These works resist explanation, instead displacing reference points and inviting alternate ways of seeing.

The exhibition concludes with works from an untitled series currently underway, offering a glimpse into Laban’s ongoing exploration of presence and absence, concealment and revelation. Together, the paintings in Odd Beings position each figure as an artifact charged with latent meaning. Comfort exists alongside unease; familiarity borders on estrangement. Rather than resolving narrative, the exhibition invites viewers to linger within these suspended worlds—contemplating what is hidden, withheld, and quietly shared.