Working in sculpture, mixed media, and site-specific installation, Lauren Halsey explores the relationship between architecture and community engagement in urban centers. Halsey studied at CalArts and received her MFA from Yale in 2014. She was a 2014–15 artist in residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem; she also participated in the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A. 2018 biennial, where she received the Mohn Award for artistic excellence. The artist creates vibrant architectural structures that center on the lives of the people around her, particularly people of color, members of the working class, queer people, and residents of South Central LA, where her family has lived for generations. Inspired by Afrofuturism, funk, and the aesthetics of her local environments, Halsey’s spatial interventions critique gentrification and disenfranchisement while offering proposals for community building and mutual aid.
CHECK OUT: The Met’s Website
WATCH: Artist Interview: Lauren Halsey
READINGS
Abraham Thomas: South Central Dream Worlds
Holland Carter, NYTimes Art Review: Lauren Halsey at the Met
Adam Bradley: Artist’s Questionnaire: Lauren Halsey Sees the Future
