To inaugurate his new New York gallery, David Kordanksy presents a slice of Los Angeles through a solo exhibition of the work of Lauren Halsey.
The American artist’s practice has been constructed using found, crafted and handmade objects, which are combined to maintain a sense of civic urgency and a fluid imagination – offering a meditation on the critical issues facing face black people, queer populations and the working class. .
As her first solo exhibition in New York, Halsey presents a series of architectural structures and geological manifestations that ruminate the visual lexicon of her hometown of South Central, Los Angeles. Playing off a familiar set of totem structures created during a past exhibition at the gallery, Halsey presents a new set of “funkmound” sculptures – some with synthetic hair and a functional waterfall, alongside others hand-painted to discuss signage in their local neighborhood.
Essence Harden, writer and curator of visual arts at the California African American Museum and Arts, believes that the sculptures implore the viewer to reflect on the following question: “How can existing buildings merge with geological structure that offers substantial support, respite and permanence? Halsey’s work, in essence, offers “both shield and shelter, placing the people and things of South Central as what must be protected,” Harden added.
The eponymous exhibition by Lauren Halsey is presented at the David Kordansky Gallery in New York until June 11. The artist is also working on a new site-specific commission for the Metropolitan Museum of Art which will open in spring 2023.
Elsewhere, HypeArt interviewed Andrew Moore for the latest episode of Through the Lens.
David Kordansky Gallery
520 W. 20th St.
New York, NY 10011