Lauren Halsey

Inaugurating David Kordansky’s new Chelsea gallery at 520 W 20th Street is Lauren Halsey’s first New York solo exhibition. Halsey’s practice draws from topics like her family’s roots in Los Angeles, crucial issues confronting the Black diaspora and queer bodies, and an urgent sense of civic responsibility. In Halsey’s exhibition, visitors will be faced with an internal cityscape of sorts, where works from several of the artist’s series are presented in a consideration of time—an element that is to be considered of importance in several ways, with particular regard to funk. Made from an amalgamation of found, handmade, and fabricated objects, viewers can expect to find themselves navigating what feels like a city neighborhood, making their way through hanging reliefs that look like stone walls, 12-feet-tall columns, funkmound sculptures (like one featuring a working waterfall), and painted objects bearing signage for hair salons or uniform stores, and graffiti-esque wording like “GOD BLESS US !!!’