About
Lauren Lavitt is a Los Angeles based artist working in mixed media. She grew up working in her family’s San Fernando Valley flower shop. Lavitt received a BFA from Otis College of Art and Design and her MFA from UCLA. She is a recipient of the Abbey Award, a nine month residency at the British School at Rome. Following the residency, Lavitt returned to Los Angeles and has been teaching Art and Design at various levels – elementary through college. Lavitt and her husband also run HannaH Hanson Gallery that supports local artists.
Artist Statement
I grew up in a floral immersed world, unwrapping, cleaning, and arranging flowers at my family’s flower shop in the San Fernando Valley. l loved spending mornings sweeping wet brick floors and discovering the detritus: cut stems, wet foam bricks, tired newspapers, and lost petals. Experimenting with the discarded artifacts of our flower shop floor became the flashpoint for my art. Flowers and their symbolism are frequently visited themes in my work. I’m fascinated by Birth, Love, and Death, the three main core experiences of humanity. My work is a reflection of my experience with these themes. I work with a variety of natural and artificial materials to make sculptures, paintings, photographs, installations, drawings, and videos to express my perspectives about the world in which we live, using whichever medium best represents my current concept. I see many layers of beautiful and grotesque images in the world around us. My work combines these disparate images in a dissonant way; in an exploration of the chaos and happenstance of modern life.
Education
2002-2005 M.F.A. University of California, Los Angeles. Los Angeles, CA
1998-2002 B.F.A. Otis College of Art and Design. Los Angeles, CA
2010-2021
Selected Exhibitions and Projects
Waiting Room. AJU. Los Angeles, CA
Art Museum of South Texas Creative Distance. Online.
Last Day Magic. Markers VII|53rd Venice Biennial Scala Mata Gallery. Venice, IT
Incognito. Santa Monica Museum of Art. Santa Monica, CA.
Accrochage. Ramiken Crucible. New York, NY.
24 Video Screening. LACE Curated by Micol Hebron. Los Angeles, CA.
Artist as Publisher. The Center for Book Arts. New York, NY.
Death and Resurrection of the Post-Hysterical Female. West LA College Gallery. Los Angeles, CA
Construct and Dissolve. Galerie Sabine Knust. Munich, DH.
Tables and Chairs. Curated by Jedediah Caesar and Shana Lutker D'Amelio Terras. New York, NY
La Saison Vidéo. Espace Croisé. Lille, FR.
Next. New SJICA. San Jose, CA (Baldessari nomination)
The Wildflower. Circus Gallery. Los Angeles, CA
Mattoni Watercolors. Billboard in Prague, CZ
Overlap 3. British School at Rome. Rome, IT
Urban/Suburban. Temple University. Rome, IT
Trying to Land. MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art. Rome, IT
Videoformes 21 art video/nouveaux media. Clermont Ferrand, FR
Overlap 2. British School at Rome. Rome, IT
Flower Album. Play Gallery, Berlin, DE
Genderosity. 4F Gallery. Los Angeles, CA
Fair play. Play Gallery. Berlin, DE
Sundown Saloon (curated by Fritz Heag and Pipilotti Rist). Los Angeles, CA
Anarchy. Slamdance Film Festival. Online
Gea’s Sweets. Bologna Flash Art Fair. Bologna, IT
Summer Show. Anna Helwing Gallery. Los Angeles, CA
Materials Process. Claremont Graduate University. Claremont, CA
The Lowe Gallery Invitational. The Lowe Gallery. Santa Monica, CA
Anarchy. Slam dance Film Festival. Online.
Bibliography
2009 Marc Weidenbaum “Videos” Blaylock’s SF Disquiet-January
2007 Andrea Cangioli, “Los Angeles Da Esposizione” Flair, October pp 258
2007 Rosanna Albertini. “Unsafe, it’s wonderful”, The WildFlower essay
2007 David Buuck. Next New and Mitra Fabian at San Jose ICA
2007 Michael Grant. “SoFA Sights”, Metro Active, August 15-21
2006 Sonia Campagnola. “Focus Los Angeles”, Flash Art January-February
Videoformes21. “AmericanVideoArt,”selection by Rosanna Albertini pp 58-59
2005 Carlo Alberto Bucci. “Accademie, Natale d’arte”, La Repubblica December
2005 Flash Art. January-February p.46, Image
2004 Mark Roth. Tinsquo, September 21
2004 Gea Politi. Gea’s Square, Flash Art July-August, pp 43
Awards, Scholarships and Residences
2005-2006 Abbey Scholarship Residency Award. The British School at Rome, Rome, IT
2004-2005 Orsellie Award
2004-2005 Clifton Webb Award
2004 UCLA Council Award
2002-2004 UCLA Graduate Division Award
2003-2004 Hoyt Award
Lectures
2006 Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Temple University in Rome, IT
2005 British School at Rome, Rome, IT
2004 Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA