Lauren Halsey (b. 1987, Los Angeles) is rethinking the possibilities for art, architecture, and community engagement. She produces both standalone artworks and site-specific projects, particularly in the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles where her family has lived for several generations. Combining found, fabricated, and handmade objects, Halsey’s work maintains a sense of civic urgency and free-flowing imagination, reflecting the lives of the people and places around her and addressing the crucial issues confronting people of color, queer populations, and the working class. Critiques of gentrification and disenfranchisement are accompanied by real-world proposals as well as celebration of on-the-ground aesthetics. Inspired by Afrofuturism and funk, as well as the signs and symbols that populate her local environments, Halsey creates a visionary form of culture that is at once radical and collaborative.
Lauren Halsey’s site-specific installation, the eastside of south central los angeles hieroglyph prototype architecture (I), commissioned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art for the museum’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, is on view from April 18 through October 22, 2023. Halsey was awarded Seattle Art Museum’s 2021 Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Prize and was the subject of a solo exhibition at the museum in 2022. Halsey’s first solo exhibition in New York inaugurated David Kordansky Gallery’s new gallery in Chelsea in May 2022, and she has also presented solo exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2021); David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles (2020); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2019); and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2018). Halsey participated in Made in L.A. 2018, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, where she was awarded the Mohn Award for artistic excellence. Her work is in the collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. In 2020, Halsey founded Summaeverythang Community Center and is currently in the process of developing a major public monument for construction in South Central Los Angeles. Halsey lives and works in Los Angeles.
Lauren Halsey
<3 Lil Bit <3, 2021
mixed media on foil-insulated foam and wood
95 3/4 x 97 x 8 1/4 inches
(243.2 x 246.4 x 21 cm)
Lauren Halsey
auntie fawn on tha 6, 2021
synthetic hair on wood
115 x 56 x 8 inches
(292.1 x 142.2 x 20.3 cm)
Lauren Halsey
My Hope, 2020
acrylic, enamel, and CDs on foam and wood
116 x 101 x 36 inches
(294.6 x 256.5 x 91.4 cm)
Lauren Halsey
Untitled, 2020
hand-carved gypsum on wood
95 1/4 x 71 3/4 x 3 inches
(241.9 x 182.2 x 7.6 cm)
Lauren Halsey
Prototype Column For Tha Shaw (RIP The Honorable Ermias Nipsey Hussle Asghedom) I & II, 2019
Hand-carved Glass Fiber Reinforced Gypsum (G.F.R.G.)
each:
162 x 48 x 48 inches
(411.5 x 121.9 x 121.9 cm)
Installation view, Frieze New York 2019
Lauren Halsey
ma foreva thang, 2019
inkjet print on paper
67 x 45 1/2 inches
(170.2 x 115.6 cm)
framed:
67 1/4 x 45 3/4 x 1 1/2 inches
(170.8 x 116.2 x 3.8 cm)
Edition of 6, with 2 AP
Lauren Halsey
Easter at F.A.M.E., 2019
hand-carved gypsum on wood
47 5/8 x 47 5/8 x 1 7/8 inches
(121 x 121 x 4.8 cm)
Lauren Halsey
we still here, there, 2018
mixed media
installation dimensions variable
Installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
Lauren Halsey
The Crenshaw District Hieroglyph Project (Prototype Architecture), 2018
gypsum, wood, tape and acrylic
installation dimensions variable
Installation view, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Lauren Halsey
that fuss wuz us, 2018
white cement, carpet, foam, wood, and mixed media
110 x 49 x 49 inches
(284.5 x 121.9 x 121.9 cm)
Lauren Halsey
that fuss wuz us, 2018
white cement, carpet, foam, wood, and mixed media
110 x 49 x 49 inches
(284.5 x 121.9 x 121.9 cm)
Detail view
Lauren Halsey
kingdom splurge (3.7.15.15), 2015
gypsum
22 ft x 6 ft x 10 inches
(670.6 x 182.9 x 25.4 cm)
Installation view, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York