Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Fejarang.
Lauren, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I have always made art in some capacity ever since I can remember and I’ve always known that making art was what I wanted to do. My parents completely supported me in that passion and it could have to do with my father being a musician all his life, a drummer who lived to create things, and my mother who nurtured those qualities. I grew up in a household where my father and uncle jammed out on the drums and keyboard, while my mother and aunt would be dancing along while also having paint and canvas out to document the experience. I grew up in a free-spirited household to say the least.
When first was thinking about college I wanted to go to UCLA because Barbara Krueger taught there and I loved her work and what she had to say. I wasn’t accepted to UCLA but I packed my car after I graduated high school, left Seattle thinking I could go to SMC to then one day transfer to UCLA. That plan didn’t pan out. I guess having two jobs, school, living on my own and missing my family was too much for me to handle as an eighteen-year-old.
Instead, I went back to Seattle and received my BA from University of Washington. Afterwards, I wanted to continue school and tried The School of Art Institute of Chicago in post bacc program, but then ultimately decided to get my masters and received my MFA from Art Center College of Design. I’ve been working in LA ever since.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I think of my work as a place in which intensities and tensions are perceived and affect the body. It is the becoming other that seduction of the object allows. It is a place for someone’s body to feel barely balanced, pulled, turned and leveled out. It’s an unraveling and pulling together; a contraction of the soft and hard, a compression and release. Material is my starting point for making sculpture, and I see it as a catalyst of intersections and collisions, of presence, of sensation and the movement between all.
I choose materials such as concrete, paper, and fabric to indicate a kind of softness that simultaneously generates the hard – a contradiction that activates tension and sensation. Activation not only between artist and artwork, but also within the work, within the viewer, between the work, and between the work and viewer.
Do you think conditions are generally improving for artists? What more can cities and communities do to improve conditions for artists?
I think life as an artist is always difficult and a constant hustle. However, with platforms like Instagram, I do think it has been giving artists a place to share their work in a more casual and accessible way. I know many artists that have connected and worked with each other because of Instagram and I think that’s a great way to pull communities together.
Outside of cyber worlds and into our physical one, needing studio space has always been difficult especially in places like LA and NY. I have friends who simply can’t afford a space to work in, and that’s frustrating. Space always dictates the work, and in some ways that can be a good thing, but in others it results in lack of making anything at all.
Cities like LA should help artists find space to live/work in. I haven’t heard of this idea executed yet in LA, but Seattle has a few live/work properties dedicated solely to artists. There is a process to be accepted, but they set their rental rate to what the artist can afford while also finding ways to promote their practice within the community.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I had a few shows this spring that just ended, however you can view all the shows online. I showed with Super Dutchess Gallery in New York, FOUND Space and Strobel & Sands in Seattle, and Basement Projects in Santa Ana. I have a few more in the fall potentially, so fingers crossed!
I always welcome studio visits and support is appreciated through following me and my work on Instagram or keeping in touch with me via email. I love hearing what people have to say about the work, so please say hello!
Contact Info:
- Address: 1370 Mirasol St
Los Angeles, CA 90023 - Website: http://www.laurenfej.com
- Phone: 253-709-3797
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenfejarang/
Image Credit:
FOUND Space and Super Dutchess Gallery
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