Lauren Halsey

Halsey uses architecture and installation art to demonstrate the realities of urban neighborhoods like South Central, Los Angeles.

[6] Halsey counts among her greatest influences the artists Betye Saar, Overton Loyd, Mike Kelley, Dominique Moody and Mark Bradford.

that Halsey completed her thesis exhibition at the California Institute of the Arts and began the program at Yale University.

[8] The same year she was included in the exhibition Everything, Everyday at the Studio Museum along with fellow Artists -in-Residence Sadie Barnette (also a CalArts alum) and Eric Mack.

[12] Halsey was included in the 2019 traveling exhibition Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art.

The white walls of the pavilion and columns were extensively etched with phrases, names, drawings, logos, and historical references from and about black culture, with many specifically referencing Halsey's community in South Central, Los Angeles.

The sphinx sculptures and other busts of people featured throughout the pavilion were based on Halsey's friends and family, including her mother Glenda.

The installation was on display from April to October 2023; following the exhibition, Halsey has said she plans to permanently relocate the work to South Central.

Writing in The New York Times, critic Holland Cotter described the piece as "a kind of space station/sanctuary," calling it "one of the best" of the museum's roof garden commissions.