Lauren Halsey
(b. 1987)2014–15 Artist in ResidenceLauren Halsey’s architectural installations are simultaneously monuments to the culture in which she grew up and declarations of resistance to forces that pose a threat to historically Black spaces.
Biography
Grounded in the iconography and spaces of her home neighborhood of South Central, Los Angeles, Lauren Halsey proposes an architecture for new Black queer spaces, wherein structures are reflective of and in service to their surrounding communities.
As a child, she decorated her room by painting on the walls and collaging images from National Geographic and Vibe. She was drawn to pictures of Black people in everyday moments. Her reorganization of this material within her room was, in effect, a precursor to her later artistic practice of creating of Black-centered environments. Having enjoyed making sets for church plays, after high school, she enrolled at El Camino College to study architecture. Her coursework prompted her to think about how communities do not—but could—have a say in what is built in their neighborhoods. The practice she has since developed through undergraduate and graduate studies, as well as residencies at institutions like the Studio Museum, investigates interventions into public space driven by community, conversation, and collectivity.
Halsey collects items from her neighborhood to use in her art, including party flyers, hair spray cans, and action figures. In her installations, she brings items considered “low-culture” into art spaces as celebrations of those very objects, while paying close attention to quotidian qualities of Black life in the United States. The brightly painted boxes of her large-scale sculptures archive signage and symbols from South Central and blend them with ancient Egyptian iconography to draw a visual, cultural, and genealogical link across time periods. These works are mobile. So, while they belong to and celebrate her neighborhood, they also embody its spirit no matter where they appear across the globe. Alongside her artistic practice, she runs the Summaeverythang Community Center, an organization in South Central dedicated to the empowerment of her local community.
Halsey received her BFA from CalArts and MFA from Yale University. She received the William H. Johnson Prize (2017); Mohn Award (2018); and Jacob Lawrence Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters (2021). The Studio Museum has presented Halsey’s work exhibition such as Harlem Postcards: Summer 2012 (2012) and Everything, Everyday: Artists-in-Residence 2014–2015 (2015).
Exhibitions and Events
Lauren Halsey
(b. 1987)2014–15 Artist in ResidenceLauren Halsey’s architectural installations are simultaneously monuments to the culture in which she grew up and declarations of resistance to forces that pose a threat to historically Black spaces.
Excerpt I from Kingdom Splurge (3.7.15.15), 2015
Biography
Grounded in the iconography and spaces of her home neighborhood of South Central, Los Angeles, Lauren Halsey proposes an architecture for new Black queer spaces, wherein structures are reflective of and in service to their surrounding communities.
As a child, she decorated her room by painting on the walls and collaging images from National Geographic and Vibe. She was drawn to pictures of Black people in everyday moments. Her reorganization of this material within her room was, in effect, a precursor to her later artistic practice of creating of Black-centered environments. Having enjoyed making sets for church plays, after high school, she enrolled at El Camino College to study architecture. Her coursework prompted her to think about how communities do not—but could—have a say in what is built in their neighborhoods. The practice she has since developed through undergraduate and graduate studies, as well as residencies at institutions like the Studio Museum, investigates interventions into public space driven by community, conversation, and collectivity.
Halsey collects items from her neighborhood to use in her art, including party flyers, hair spray cans, and action figures. In her installations, she brings items considered “low-culture” into art spaces as celebrations of those very objects, while paying close attention to quotidian qualities of Black life in the United States. The brightly painted boxes of her large-scale sculptures archive signage and symbols from South Central and blend them with ancient Egyptian iconography to draw a visual, cultural, and genealogical link across time periods. These works are mobile. So, while they belong to and celebrate her neighborhood, they also embody its spirit no matter where they appear across the globe. Alongside her artistic practice, she runs the Summaeverythang Community Center, an organization in South Central dedicated to the empowerment of her local community.
Halsey received her BFA from CalArts and MFA from Yale University. She received the William H. Johnson Prize (2017); Mohn Award (2018); and Jacob Lawrence Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters (2021). The Studio Museum has presented Halsey’s work exhibition such as Harlem Postcards: Summer 2012 (2012) and Everything, Everyday: Artists-in-Residence 2014–2015 (2015).
Exhibitions and Events