Laing was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. He grew up during World War II and experienced the Battle of Britain as young boy.
He attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and served with the Northumberland Fusiliers as a liuetenant in Ireland and Germany. He soon realized that the military was not what he was looking for and attended Saint Martin's School of Art in London.
At the beginning of the 1960s, while still at Saint Martin's, Laing was introduced to artists in New York City. After art school he moved there, and with his connections, his art career began to take off.
Laing's career took him from the avant-garde world of 1960s pop art, through minimalist sculpture, followed by representational sculpture and then back full circle to his pop art roots.
In 1993 the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh staged a retrospective exhibition of his work.
Laing did a series of anti-war paintings, based primarily on photographs from the atrocities at Abu Ghraib. These paintings were the beginning of his return to pop art. They were followed in 2004 by a series of Amy Winehouse paintings, as well as a painting of Victoria Beckham and Kate Moss.
On 19 February 2012 a bronze sculpture by Laing, Dreamer, was stolen from Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow.
