Lauren Peterson

Still Life with Fowls, Pretzel, and Beer

Mixed-media installation

“I intervene on domestic, everyday objects and materials using painterly gestures. I practice locating edges between the valuable and devalued, image and object, appealing and repellent. Negotiating the slippery demarcation between useful and useless, I intuitively deconstruct, layer, and recombine. My primary motivation in the studio is play and often anchors in its capacity for humor and absurdity. Poking, prodding at a disassembled hierarchy, and making materiality visible. Conceived forms are components able to be rearranged within an installation, stand-alone, or repurposed, mimicking the enduring lifespan of objects and resistant to an objective conclusion.”

— Lauren Peterson

About the artist

Lauren Peterson

Lauren Michelle Peterson is an artist, educator, and curatorial collaborator currently living and working in Texas. She uses found objects to consider the potential ontological ramifications of a consumer-based society. Finding and excavating edges through materiality and process, Peterson’s practices include drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, and performance. She was named a 2019/20 Aspen Art Museum Fellow and was included in the New American Paintings 150 West edition.

Past exhibitions include Off the Wall at Spartanburg Art Museum (SC), Message from the Sea at the GAIA Center in Athens, Greece, and Forget Me Not at Zuckerman Museum (GA). Peterson has been an artist in residence at Vermont Studio Center (VT), Hambidge Center for Arts and Sciences (GA), Kimmel Harding Nelson Center (NE), and Jentel Foundation (WY). Recent curatorial projects include Remote Residue at the Athens Institute for Contemporary Art with Doppler Projects (2021). Her work is part of the permanent collection of the High Museum of Art (GA) and Goya Contemporary (MD). Peterson is currently pursuing a PhD in the School of Art at Texas Tech University.