Lauren's newest project, Isolated Objects, explores the history of The Ohio State Reformatory located in Mansfield, Ohio. Built with prison labor, the massive penitentiary opened in 1896 with a focus on rehabilitation, religion, and trade skills training programs. Over the years conditions dramatically deteriorated and in 1990 The Ohio State Reformatory was permanently closed due to dangerous overcrowding and inhumane conditions.
Lauren’s photographs center on the isolated objects that remain on-site such as a variety of damaged chairs; broken bunk beds held together with rags; and the warden’s parlor outfitted with plastic flowers. The images are translated into digitally woven photographic textile works that are reworked via hand dyeing, sewing, cutting, collage processes and unravelling the threads that comprise the image. Lauren would like to thank both the Joan Mitchell Center and the Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico for their support via artist residencies where the work was created.
Lauren Davies solo exhibition of woven textile photographs at Foothill Galleries in Cleveland Heights opens on October 25, 2023 with an opening from 5:00 -8:00 pm plus a Sunday afternoon gathering on November 5 at 3:00 pm.
Eclipse the Photosphere
Foothill Galleries at Bostwick Design Art Initiative opens on April 3, 2024
Ghost Ranch 2, print on aluminum, 16”x20”
Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery: Interwoven, 2023
Interwoven: The Many Voices of Fiber: Curator’s Tour on Saturday/noon, April 29. Join us for a one-hour curatorial exhibition tour. Exhibition April 29 - July 7, 2023.
Lauren Davies, "Cascade"
The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Residency, 2023
Summer residency at the Helen Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico, 2023.
Fort Wayne Museum of Art
The National: Best Contemporary Photography 2022
On exhibition from September 17, 2022 - January 8, 2023 at the Wayne Museum of Art. Happy to be included in this national survey.
Joan Mitchell Center Residency, 2022
We are pleased to announce the 24 artists who will participate in the 2022 Artist-in-Residence program at the New Orleans-based Joan Mitchell Center. Among the residents are five newly selected New Orleans-based artists and 19 artists from across the United States who were previously awarded residencies that were later deferred due to the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The comprehensive list of 2022 artists-in-residence includes:
Sarah Amos, Enosburg Falls, VT
Scott Andresen, New Orleans, LA
Cindy Cheng, Baltimore, MD
Yanira Collado, Miami, FL
Jose Cotto, New Orleans, LA
Lauren Davies, Cleveland, OH
Josiah Gagosian, New Orleans, LA
Gabrielle Garcia Steib, New Orleans, LA
L. Kasimu Harris, New Orleans, LA
Elana Herzog, New York, NY
Sedrick Huckaby, Fort Worth, TX
Lisa Jarrett, Portland, OR
Yashua Klos, Brooklyn, NY
Rose Nestler, Brooklyn, NY
Juan Carlos Quintana, Oakland, CA
Julia Rooney, New Haven, CT and New York, NY
Karla Rosas, New Orleans, LA
Rebecca Rose, Davenport, FL
Elizabeth Simonson, Minneapolis, MN
Laura Spector, Houston, TX
Stephanie Syjuco, Oakland, CA
José Villalobos, San Antonio, TX
Summer White, New Orleans, LA
Antoine Williams, Greensboro, NC
As part of the residency program, participating artists are provided with private studio space on the Center’s campus, support from onsite studio assistants, a $600 monthly stipend, and prepared meals. Campus lodging and financial support to transport materials and artworks are provided to those artists traveling from other parts of the country. Artists are also able to engage in a wide array of public programs and professional development sessions, which provide critical opportunities for network-building, community dialogue, feedback from peers and other arts professionals, and learnings about resources and tools that support career-building.
The Joan Mitchell Center was established by the Foundation in 2015. The Artist-in-Residence program was created to provide artists with the essentials needed to advance their careers: space, time, financial support, and access to professional development resources. For participating artists, the residency often serves as a critical juncture in their career trajectories and provides opportunities to engage with peers in a city rich with artistic and cultural heritage.
Fuller Craft Museum, 2022
Hand Eye Coordination
Fuller Craft Museum, October 26-December 5
The next stop for Boston’s Photography Resource Center/PRC “On The Road” is at the Fuller Craft Museum's Community Gallery with an exhibition featuring artists who combine photography and textile design into a single discipline. Hand Eye Coordination includes contemporary photographers embroidering, weaving, and applying other traditional textile design techniques to both original and historical photographs. Join us for an online reception with the artists on November 18th at 7pm. Click HERE to register for this free event, and view the show in-person during regular museum hours.
Lauren Davies, Youngstown 4, 2016,
deconstructed woven photograph, 56" x 32"
Hand Eye Coordination at Fuller Craft Museum.
Online reception, conversation and artist talks. Join the event here.
Ohio Arts Council/Riffe Gallery, 2021
Reform and Educate, 2021 at Riffe Gallery.
SHIFT at the Riffe Gallery/Ohio Arts Council from July 31 - October 9, 2021. An online live-streamed Artist’s Talk on August 18th, from Noon-1:00 pm. Recorded Artist Talk can be viewed here.
Ohio Arts Council, 2021 Individual Excellence Award
Spring 2021, new studio with financial support from the Ohio Arts Council.
Delighted to receive a 2021 Individual Excellence Award and funding from the Ohio Arts Council.
Transformer Station, One - Unique Photo-Based Images, 2021
Interview at Transformer Station in conjunction with One: Unique Photo-Based Images
Transformer Station explores “unique objects” made from photographs and lush nocturnal landscapes of Cleveland
Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 27, 2020, By Steve Litt
Davies is represented in the show by “Landscape Management,” a 2020 work that combines wood constructions, slices of artificial turf, and cut-up photographs of the artificial turf printed on advertising banners. The resulting installation, a three-dimensional, artificial landscape, is a mental switcheroo. It combines a sense of shameless hucksterism, with the crestfallen disappointment of experiencing a product, in this case a "landscape,'' that can never live up to its billing because it’s inherently and flamboyantly phony.
Announcing 2020 Joan Mitchell Center Artists-in-Residence: Lauren Davies, Fall/Winter 2020
The artists were selected through a multi-tiered process that includes a review by a five-person panel of established artists, curators, and arts professionals. Participants are chosen with an eye toward: the potential career impact of a residency, as indicated by each artist; a demonstrated commitment to studio practice; and a cohesive body of work that speaks to creative vision and innovation.
“The 2020 artists’ work represents an incredible spectrum of formal and conceptual approaches, and an engagement with place, culture, identity, and the importance of the creative process in ways that feel timely and deeply meaningful,” said Toccarra A. H. Thomas, Director of the Joan Mitchell Center. “The residency program provides a platform for participants to continue to develop their work, share ideas and innovations, and to be inspired in new ways through dialogue with other artists, arts professionals, and the local community as well as by the unique history and culture of New Orleans. I look forward to welcoming the 2020 artists to the Center and to the energy and passion that we know they will bring to the experience.”
Joan Mitchell Foundation
Blank Space Gallery, 2020
Loose Thread, Blank Space Gallery, NY
Image: Lauren Davies, Portrait of a Brick
Photo-Eye Gallery, 2020
April 2020 interview with photo-eye Gallery in Santa Fe, NM for “Fractured” exhibition.
New York Center for Photographic Art, 2020
New York Center for Photographic Arts
Grand Prize competition winner for Decay, Rust, Corrosion, juried by Darren Ching of KlompChing Gallery in NY., March 2020
NIAD, 2019
Fiberful: Group exhibition of artists working in textiles at NIAD in Richmond, CA. December 2019
MASS Moca, 2019
MASS MoCA: Terrific residency experience at the MASS MoCA studios. September 2019
Foothill Galleries, 2019
Palace of Illusion: Curated two person photography exhibition at Foothill Galleries featuring works from Stephen Tomasko and Arnold Tunstall. Dioramas, social constructs, avatars and outlandishly ironic everyday life. Fall 2019
Rust Belt Biennial, 2019
Happy to be included in the curated selections for the Rust Belt Biennial at Sordoni Gallery, Wilkes University, in Wilkes-Barre, PA. The first photo biennial featuried works from throughout the Rust Belt.
August 27 - October 5, 2019
Jack Fischer Gallery, 2019
Unravel paired photo-based work by Lauren Davies and Kirsten Stolle. Contextualized by our precarious political circumstances, the installation is a grim but engrossing account of American economic decline and reckless industrial arrogance. Photograph Mag full article.
Unravel: Lauren Davies & Kirsten Stolle
Jack Fischer Gallery in San Francisco from May 18 - June 29, 2019. Reception May 18, 4:00-6:00 pm.
Delighted to be back in San Francisco and showing with Kirsten Stolle.
Rust Belt Biennial, 2019
A New Photographic Biennial Looks to America’s Rust Belt
Humble Arts Foundation interviews Rust Belt Biennial curators, June 10, 2019
The Print Center, 2019
93rd International Print Competition Semifinalist with online exhibition.
Click here for online exhibition.
With Regard to Cleveland by Bean Gilsdorf from SFMOMA OpenSpace, September 27, 2018.
Words, 2018
Open Space is SFMOMA's online & live interdisciplinary commissioning platform.
Foothill Galleries, 2018
Artist's Talk at Foothill Galleries on Thursday, July 12, 6:00-7:00 pm.
On view this Summer at Foothill Galleries in Cleveland.
Peripheral Vision, 2018
Pleased to be featured in Peripheral Visions' upcoming Issue 8. This will be Peripheral Visions's first hard-copy print version and will also be available on-line. Look for this to appear in May/June 2018.
Click here for my artist's profile.
Joan Mitchell Emerging Artist Award, 2017
Delighted that the Joan Mitchell Foundation's catalog for the 2016-2017 Emerging Artist Grants has arrived. Download of complete catalog is available here.
Dennison College, 2018
Featured in "Cleveland in Newark" presented by Denison University with an opening on February 17, 2018.
Click here for details.
Worthington Yards, 2018
Featured in Worthington Yards permanent collection and new Yards Project Space opening on January 18, 2018.
Click here for details.
Peripheral Visions Fellowship, 2018
Peripheral Visions Fellowship for upcoming Issue 8 that focuses on new work with a critical approach to craft, textiles, materiality and sculpture. Peripheral Visions first hard copy print version is due out in May 2018.
Click here for details.
University of Akron, 2017
Art Review: Current events reflected in works at Emily Davis Gallery
Click here for Anderson Turner's Beacon Journal review of Altered States at Emily Davis Gallery at University of Akron.
Sculpture Center, 2017
Art Review: Fiber artists take on tough subjects from the news
Click here for Anderson Turner's Beacon Journal review of fiber arts exhibition at The Sculpture Center.
H Space, 2017
Materialism
Curated by Lauren Davies at H Space with work by Eli Gfell, Elizabeth Emery, Aaron Koehn and Ella Medicus. Opening reception on October 27 at 7:00pm, Artists' Talk on October 28 at 2:00 pm.
H Space is located at 10237 Berea Road, Unit H, Cleveland, OH 44012
University of Akron, 2017
University of Akron Myers School of Art presents "Heatsink" and "Altered States" exhibitions.
Click here for Cleveland.com article.
"Altered States: Works by Christi Birchfield & Lauren Davies" an exhibition by two Cleveland based mixed-media artists. Join the University of Akron in greeting and meeting the artists in the two concurrent exhibitions at the Emily Davis Gallery with a reception on October 4.
On view from September 28 - October 20, 2017
University of Akron, 150 E Exchange St, Akron, OH 44325
MOCA Cleveland, 2017
MOCA Cleveland's Visiting Curator Award Program
September 2017 awarded MOCA studio visit with Jose Carlos Diaz, Chief Curator at The Andy Warhol Museum and MOCA Curator, Will Brown.
Sculpture Center, 2017
Objections and Connections: Fiber Artists Talk Back
William Marcellus Armstrong, Lauren Davies, Trey D. Gehring, Penny Mateer, and Kathryn Shinko.
On View September 15 – October 27, 2017
The Sculpture Center
1834 E. 123rd Street, Cleveland, OH 44106
http://sculpturecenter.org/
‘sindikit, 2017
Conversation with Lauren Davies and 'sindikit at Washington Project for the Arts on June 28, 2017
Sindikit presents: Lauren Davies
Washington Project for the Arts
Ohio Arts Council, Individual Excellence Award in Photography, 2017
2017 Ohio Arts Council Excellence Award in Photography
Details here.
North Seattle College, 2017
North Seattle College Art Gallery
Recipient of Joan Mitchell Foundation 2016 Emerging Artist Grant.
Details here.
Methods of Collection at University City Science Center's Esther Klein Gallery in Philadelphia.
February 11 - March 25, 2016
Details here.
Review: The People's Museum of Revisionist Natural Itstory at SPACES
ArtHopper.org, June 29, 2016 by Rebecca Groynom
Click here for ArtHopper. org review.
SPACES Parodies Natural History Museums in Edgy Spoof Built for Laughs
Steven Litt, Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 8, 2015
Lauren Davies: The Hall of Faux Moon Rocks.
SPACES: The People's Museum of Revisionist Natural Itstory.
A collaborative effort seeking narrative justice. On view from November 20, 2015 - January 15, 2016.
Click here for complete information.
Ohio Arts Council, Individual Excellence Award, 2015
Recent Reviews
It's All Been Done Before: Rose Bouthillier, Art Hopper, February 3, 2015
Click Here for complete review.
It's All Been Done Before at FORUM Artspace: Christoper Lynn, February 18, 2015
Click Here for complete review.
Shoebox Orchestra Review: Two Galleries with New Tomorrows, Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, October 3, 2014:
Lauren Davies' small sculptures made of plaster, paint, pulverized glass and flocking masquerade as mineral specimens, igniting the desire to heft them.
Davies' idea of faking bits of the earth smilingly satirizes the traditional notion of "nature" - that is, the visible world - as art's proper subject, linking it with current anxieties about human artifice as a menace to life on its home planet.
