Lauren Kalman (born 1980) is a contemporary American visual artist who uses photography, sculpture, craft objects, performance and installation. Kalman’s works which investigate ideas of beauty, body image, and consumer culture, have been featured in exhibitions at the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Contemporary Art Museum Houston, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the deCordova Museum.[1] Kalman currently teaches part-time at Brown University, RI and the Rhode Island School of Design.

Early Life and Education: Kalman was born and raised in the Mid-West. Her father is an industrial designer and her mother was a commercial photographer.[2] Kalman attended the Massachusetts College of Art where she majored in metals. After, she apprenticed at the Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture where she was trained in foundry with a focus on metal chasing and welding. Later, Kalman earned a MFA in art and technology from The Ohio State University.[3]


Works:

But if the Crime is Beautiful.... (2013-2015) But if the Crime is Beautiful… is a series found objects and fabric adorning a woman’s body to create sculptural compositions, which were photographed and displayed along with the objects themselves. The series is named after Adolf Loos' 1910 lecture series Ornament and Crime, in which he equated ornamentation with the destruction of culture and society, and only criminals and degenerates (including women) adorn themselves.[4] Adolf Loos' writings were highly influential in the Modern Architecture movement and the Bauhaus. In But if the Crime is Beautiful… Kalman points out and challenges these historical discourses, which have simultaneously served to paint the female sexuality as deviant, within the field of modernism.[5] But if the Crime is Beautiful… was exhibited in the Sienna Patti Gallery in Lennox, MA from February 8 through April 6, 2014.

Virus Simulation (2012/2013)

Spectacular (2011/2012/2013)

Constellation (2011)

Blooms, Efflorescence, and Other Dermatological Embellishments (2009)

Corpus, Figure, Skate (2008)

Projection (2008)

Certainly Red (2007/2012)

Dress up Dress Down (2007)

Pearl (2006)

Hard Wear (2006)

Aesthetic Acupuncture (2006)

  1. ^ Williamson, C.N. "Spotlight on Lauren Kalman: Pleasure and Pain In Gold". The Artifice. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
  2. ^ Cummins, Susan. "Lauren Kalman: But If the Crime Is Beautiful..." Art Jewelry Forum. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
  3. ^ "Lauren Kalman". deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
  4. ^ "Lauren Kalman". Brooklyn Museum: Elizabeth A Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
  5. ^ Craig, Gabriel. "Lauren Kalman, Modern Furniture, Ornament, And Religion". Art Jewlery Forum. Retrieved 16 February 2016.