Lauren Clay

Lauren Clay (born 1982) is an American artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She is known for her large-scale installations comprised of digitally printed marbled wallpaper and colorful plaster relief sculptures. Her work often contains historical architectural references and employs many different strategies to distort and manipulate space.

In 2019, Clay became a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.

Lauren Clay, installation view, Windows and Walls, 2018

Clay grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. She attended Savannah College of Art and Design, in Savannah, GA where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting in 2004. Clay attended Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, where she received a Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking in 2007. Clay moved to New York in the summer of 2007.

Clay's first solo exhibition was at Larissa Goldston Gallery in New York, in 2009.

In the fall of 2013, the estate of American sculptor, David Smith (sculptor), accused Clay of copy right infringement via its licensing agent, VAGA. Clay had created a series of small paper sculptures which appropriated the motifs from David Smith's "Cubi" series. Before Clay's sculptures were to be exhibited at the New Jersey sculpture park Grounds for Sculpture in October 2013, the estate contacted her and demanded an "accounting" of the work. Smith's estate accused Clay of copyright infringement and, at various points, demanded that she destroy her sculptures. Smith's estate also threatened to sue Grounds for Sculpture if the sculptures were exhibited. However, Clay understood her works—much smaller in scale and produced out of colored paper—as critical commentary on Smith's iconic metal sculptures. As such, Clay felt that her sculptures constituted fair use under US copyright law. Eventually, the estate and Clay were able to reach an out-of-court settlement. Clay retained her rights to exhibit and sell the works but agreed to not add to the series.