Lauren Halsey
Lauren Halsey (b. 1987 Los, Angeles, California) is a contemporary American artist. Halsey uses architecture and installation art to demonstrate the realities of urban neighborhoods like South Central, Los Angeles.[1]
Biography
Halsey was born in 1987 in Los Angeles, California.[2] She studied at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) from 2008-2012, earning a BFA, and then Yale University from 2012-2014, earning an MFA.[3]
From 2012-2014, Halsey worked with colleagues on a project titled Harlem Postcards, which was presented at The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY. It was during this time. that Halsey completed her thesis exhibition at the California Institute of the Arts and began the program at Yale University.[4] In 2015 Halsey was included in the United, exhibition at Coney Island Art Walls.[5] The same year she was included in the exhibition Everything, Everyday at the Studio Museum along with fellow Artists -in-Residence Sadie Barnette (also a CalArts alum) and Eric Mack.[6]
In 2018 Halsey was involved in a solo exhibition at Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris.[7] Also in 2018, she participated in a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Her work was at the Hammer Museum. New to the L.A. art scene, Halsey was awarded the Mohn Award in 2018.[8] She won the Frieze Artist Award in 2019.[9]
Halsey was included in the 2019 traveling exhibition Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art.[10]
In July 2020, Halsey collaborated with Korina Matyas, a childhood friend and environmentalist to start Summaeverythang, an initiative to bring organic produce to underserved neighborhoods in L.A.[11] Summaeverythang donated an average of 600 boxes of organic produce every week throughout the 2020 season.[11]
Halsey was commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2022 as the tenth artist to design an outdoor work for the museum's Iris and B. Gerald Cantor roof garden. The planned exhibition was postponed to 2023 due to residual logistics delays from the COVID-19 pandemic. Halsey designed the eastside of south central los angeles hieroglyph prototype architecture (I) (2022-2023), an open-air cubic pavilion inspired by Egyptian architecture, surrounded by four sphinx statues and several free-standing columns. The white walls of the pavilion and columns were extensively etched with phrases, names, drawings, logos, and historical references from and about black culture, with many specifically referencing Halsey's community in South Central, Los Angeles. The sphinx sculptures and other busts of people featured throughout the pavilion were based on Halsey's friends and family, including her mother Glenda. The work went on display in April 2023 and will close in October 2023; following the exhibition, Halsey plans to permanently relocate the work to South Central. Writing in The New York Times, critic Holland Cotter described the piece as "a kind of space station/sanctuary," calling it "one of the best" of the museum's roof garden commissions.[12]
Awards
California Institute of Arts awarded Lauren Halsey The Beutner Family Award of Excellence in the Arts in 2011.[3] Halsey was awarded the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture scholarship for emerging artist in 2014. In 2014-15, Halsey was part of the Studio Museum in Harlems Artist-in-Residence program.[13] She was recognized for transforming the Mezzanine Gallery with a site-specific installation for her exhibition titled Everything, Everyday. Halsey is the recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist grant, 2015. She received the William H. Johnson Price in 2017.[3] Also in 2017, she was awarded the Edge Award from the Los Angeles Design Festival. In 2018, Halsey received $100,000 for the Mohn Award to honor her artistic excellence.[14] In 2019, Lauren Halsey was named the winner of the Frieze Art, for which she will receive $25,000, funded by Luma Foundation, to create a new work for the upcoming edition of Frieze New York art fair.[9] Also in 2019, Halsey was recipient of the 2019 Painter and Sculptors Grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, New York.[15] In 2021 Halsey received the Gwendolyn Knight | Jacob Lawrence Prize from the Seattle Art Museum.[16]
References
- ^ "Lauren Halsey". Joan Mitchell Foundation. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
- ^ Sargent, Antwaun (2020). Young, gifted and Black : a new generation of artists : Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art. New York, NY: D.A.P. pp. 252–253. ISBN 9781942884590.
- ^ a b c "Lauren Halsey | Hammer Museum". hammer.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
- ^ McDaniel, Sheila (2018-02-11). "Harlem Postcards Summer 2012". The Studio Museum in Harlem. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
- ^ Deitch, Jeffrey. "Coney Art Walls | Lauren Halsey". www.coneyartwalls.com. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
- ^ "Everything, Everyday". The Studio Museum in Harlem. 11 September 2017. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
- ^ Slenske, Michael (10 June 2019). "Lauren Halsey brings the funk to the L.A. art scene". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
- ^ "Lauren Halsey Receives 2018 Mohn Award - Hammer Museum". The Hammer Museum. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
- ^ a b "Frieze Artist Award: Lauren Halsey". frieze.com. Retrieved 2019-11-01.
- ^ Sargent, Antwaun (2020). Young, gifted and Black : a new generation of artists : Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art. New York, NY: D.A.P. pp. 104–105. ISBN 9781942884590.
- ^ a b Escarcega, Patricia. "Artist Lauren Halsey's latest project: bringing beautiful produce to underserved neighborhoods". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
- ^ Cotter, Holland (16 April 2023). "Met's Beloved Roof Garden Draws on Ancient Egypt and South Central L.A.". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 September 2023. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
- ^ "Everything, Everyday". The Studio Museum in Harlem. 2017-09-11. Retrieved 2019-11-01.
- ^ "Lauren Halsey Receives 2018 Mohn Award | Hammer Museum". hammer.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-01.
- ^ "Lauren Halsey - Artist - David Kordansky Gallery". www.davidkordanskygallery.com. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
- ^ "Lauren Halsey: 2021 Knight Lawrence Prize Winner". Seattle Art Museum. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
External links
- Official website
- images of Halsey's work at the Joan Mitchell Foundation
- American installation artists
- Living people
- 1987 births
- American women installation artists
- Artists from Los Angeles
- 21st-century American women artists
- 21st-century African-American women
- 21st-century African-American artists
- African-American contemporary artists
- American contemporary artists
- African-American women artists
- California Institute of the Arts alumni
- Yale University alumni
- 20th-century African-American people
- 20th-century African-American women