Laura Shechter (American 1944-2024) was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from Brooklyn College with a degree in Fine Arts in 1965 and studied with painter Ad Reinhardt, whose minimalist approach strongly influenced her development. Since 1967, Shechter has worked across still life and cityscape painting using oil, watercolor, pencil, silverpoint, and lithographic prints. Early in her career she identified as a contemporary realist, exhibiting widely from the 1970s onward, and later expanded her practice to include photo-based urban scenes. Her work often emphasizes decorative pattern, color, and everyday objects, shaped in part by her involvement in feminist art movements and her teaching at Parsons School of Design and the National Academy of Design.