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LA-based artist Lauren Halsey is doing the work. The “work” is to understand the breadth and depth of colonialism (as empire, as anti-Black strategy, as global inequity, and destruction). The “work” is to manifest worlds where bliss, liberation, and sustainability are at the foundation. The “work” ignores a finish line and, instead, offers an infinite course of actions, where the doer and the efforts being done remind you that here and now—with all its terror and chaos—is a glorious site of ingenuity. The multimedia artist and funkstress has been mapping her visions of Black home space via architectural structures, hieroglyphic etchings, archival objects, and assemblies for over a decade. Halsey uses found objects and handmade works to cultivate a sense of civic urgency. South Central, Los Angeles, Halsey's current and generational home, grounds and charts these ventures in world-building, reminding us of the graphics, decelerations, and funk visions that Black people have declared as vernacular.

Halsey’s CV is imposing, marking a range of exhibitions, awards, and recognition across the globe. She has exhibited work at MoCA, Foundation Louis Vuitton, Jack Shainman Gallery, Jeffrey Deitch (LA), The Hammer Museum, and David Kordansky (to name a few), with upcoming projects at the Underground Museum and Serpentine Gallery. Halsey is an alum of the prestigious Studio Museum of Harlem residency and the Mohn Award recipient for her prodigious monument, The Crenshaw District Hieroglyph Project, for Made in LA 2018. Halsey produces work of and for community, working alongside friends, family, and her partner Monique McWilliams. The Summaeverythang Community Center is a culmination of this vested interest in both making family and keeping home. Imagined initially to house various in-person activities for young folks, Summaeverythang has shifted towards food, becoming a packing site for free organic CSA boxes. …