Inspired by the South Central Los Angeles neighborhood that the artist and her family have lived in for generations, Halsey’s expansive practice teems with the signs and symbols that populate that urban landscape and celebrates the community’s vitality and a creative form of resistance to advancing gentrification and the threat of erasure.

The artist’s important work centers the on Black community, both aesthetically and materially. Halsey gathers icons of pride, autonomy, initiative, and resilience from local vernacular sources recontextualizing and reinterpreting them for her utopic fantasies of the city. Both celebrating Black cultural expressions and archiving them, her work—which includes wall works, massive multiroom installations, and immersive outdoor environments—is a potent reminder of the importance of community and home.

Beyond the signs and symbols of contemporary South Central, Halsey employs the iconography of ancient Egypt as a means to reclaim lost legacies, drawing inspiration from Afrofuturism—a transcultural movement blending science fiction with aspects of Black art and culture—and the utopian architecture proposed in the 1960s by Archigram and Superstudio.

About The Author

Born in Los Angeles in 1987, Lauren Halsey has been the subject of solo exhibitions and has been featured in group exhibitions around the world. Hans Ulrich Obrist is the artistic director of the Serpentine, London. Lizzie Carey-Thomas is chief curator of the Serpentine, London. Bettina Korek is CEO of the Serpentine, London. Dr. LeRonn P. Brooks is associate curator at the Getty Research Institute. Harmony Holiday is a writer, dancer, and experimental filmmaker. Will Alexander is a poet, novelist, playwright, artist, pianist, and philosopher. Douglas Kearney is an interdisciplinary writer, librettist, poet, and performer. George Clinton revolutionized music and performance through the pioneering work of Parliament-Funkadelic.