Lauren Clay

Cris Worley Fine Arts is excited to announce an upcoming exhibition of recent works by Brooklyn-based artist, Lauren Clay — Threshold Drawings. The exhibition will open with an artist’s reception on Saturday, May 20th, from 5-8 pm, and will run through June 17th. The event is free and open to the public. This is the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.

In late 2021, Lauren Clay left the comfort and routine of her Brooklyn studio to spend a year in the desert at the Roswell Artist in Residence, where her new environs allowed space (both literal and figurative), to focus on new works including a medium she holds dear – drawing. Throughout the history of art, drawing has played a fundamental part in an artist’s work, often serving as the basis for more fully realized projects in other materials. Although Clay studied painting and works primarily in three dimensions, she has created four elaborate color pencil drawings, fully realized, as complete works.

In recent years, Clay has broadened her working knowledge of Depth Psychology, developed by the iconic early 20thcentury psychiatrist, Carl Jung, who believed that the subconscious mind held key personal truths about an individual unknown to the conscious mind. Clay illuminates this “other side” through soft, ethereal thresholds, upon which one may unlock the mysteries of the subconscious. Alongside the drawings, Clay will exhibit intricately hand-marbled wall sculptures — also thresholds, windows, and stairways, cast in hydrocal.

Lauren Clay (b. 1982 Atlanta, GA) lives and works in Brooklyn. She received a BFA in Painting from Savannah College of Art and Design, and an MFA in Painting from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work has been widely exhibited nationally, including solo exhibitions at Asya Geisberg Gallery, New York; Larissa Goldston Gallery, New York; Whitespace Gallery, Atlanta; Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, Denver; and Savannah College of Art and Design, with site specific installations at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY; Arts Brookfield, NY; Art In Buildings, NY; and Paradise City, Seoul, South Korea. Press includes The New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, Artsy, Bomb Magazine, Art F City, The Brooklyn Rail, Art Info, Hi Fructose, and the Washington Post. Clay has been an artist in residence at Henry Street Settlement, New York, NY. Her editioned artist book, Subtle Body, published by Small Editions NY, is included in the library collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Brooklyn Museum of Art. Clay was a studio assistant for Peter Halley and together they have collaborated on three projects including a piece produced by Flash Art in conjunction with the 2019 Venice Biennial. Clay received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award in 2019 and was a 2021-22 resident at the Roswell Artist in Residence.

Cris Worley Fine Arts is a Dallas, Texas based contemporary art gallery located in the Dallas Design District. With over 20 years of experience, Cris Worley is dedicated to promoting innovative work by contemporary artists at various stages of their careers.

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Threshold Drawings

May 20 - June 17, 2023

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