Source: Long Beach Press-Telegram
The Cal State Dominguez Hills art gallery will launch its first exhibit since the coronavirus pandemic began, with the afrofuturism-and funk-inspired work of South Central artist Lauren Halsey going on display Saturday, March 12.
Halsey incorporates architecture, and found, fabricated and handmade objects into her art, which is inspired by funk and afrofuturism. Indeed, the theme of her latest exhibition, which runs until Dec. 10 at Cal State Dominguez Hills, is “funkified placemaking” and afrofuturism, according to the University Art Gallery. Afrofuturism is a movement — spanning art, philosophy, academia and other disciplines — that envisions a better future for Black people, according to a 2020 article in UCLA Magazine.
Halsey’s exhibit will premiere with an opening reception from noon to 6 p.m. at the gallery on the Dominguez Hills campus, 1000 E. Victoria St., near Carson, nearly two years after her work was supposed to go on display there — until the pandemic postponed it.
“The gallery has been closed for two years; we’re all feeling extremely excited about the opportunity to reopen with Halsey’s work,” said Aandrea Stang, gallery director and assistant professor of art and design at CSUDH. “We are looking forward to a celebration together.”
Halsey, who was unavailable to comment, grew up in South Central Los Angeles and attended the California Institute of the Arts, where she studied architecture from the perspective of art. She also has a master of fine arts degree from Yale University.
Halsey’s artwork focuses on South Central, using found materials, the names of various people and places, and the “colors of home” to create “architectural mappings,” a University Art Gallery press release said. Halsey also uses two color schemes — the red, black and green of the Pan African flag; and orange, yellow, pink and blue “hyper pigments,” which the artist associates with South Central — in a way that “etches out decelerations, provocations, the naming of the dead, and the aesthetic genius of Black people,” the art gallery said.
Halsey’s exhibition will display her sculptures, paintings and mixed media.
Stang, who met Halsey in the summer of 2018, has been involved in curating and organizing the artist’s latest solo exhibit. One of the “great things” about the show, Stang said, is that the floor is mirrored. And the foreground is also draped in aluminum, the gallery press release said.
“So it reminds you some kind of like look to the future,” Stang said, “but it also really reflects all the work that will be on the walls and the sculpture work.”
Saturday’s reception is open to the public. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday.
Information: gallery.csudh.edu.
