B I O G R A P H Y
Lauren Berley is an Arkansas-based contemporary artist working in oil and charcoal over experimental textures and printed material in the substrate. Her creative path began as a celebrity and fashion photographer in Los Angeles before she moved to New York to document NYC in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Her powerful, intimate images are included in such permanent collections as The Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian Institution, New York State Museum and 9/11 Memorial & Museum.
In 2014, yearning for nature and the Rocky Mountains, she settled in Denver to study drawing and oil painting in the Venetian discipline with artist Michael J. Dowling. Dowling’s mentorship encouraged unrestricted exploration, and for six years she built a body of professional work in his studio. Her early works engaged humor and sarcasm to diffuse the rawness of trauma she was creatively processing. Titles such as “You Will Need Me Some Day,” and “He Will Return to Me” bring deep trauma to the surface through the bold use of iconic figurines placed in surreal environments. Embraced and encouraged by the Colorado marketplace, Lauren’s work in photography, painting and drawing has been represented in Denver, Aspen, Colorado Springs and Crested Butte. Her most memorable assignment will forever be a large-scale permanent installation for the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Greeley, Colorado.
At the onset of the 2020 pandemic, Lauren came to Northwest Arkansas to hunker near family, establish a hobby farm and join an ever-growing creative community. Here she finds limitless inspiration from the colors and textures of The Natural State, as well as a deep sense of healing. Currently, she is working on a series of contemporary sunset paintings over uncommon substrates. These brightly-colored textural pieces are a continuation of her artwork as therapy.
“I am using the most intense colors found in nature as a means of soothing,” says Lauren. “There are many things to be fearful of nowadays, so much turmoil and darkness in every day… but the setting sun gives us a chance to put the day to bed, with a burst of surreal color as a send-off… a fleeting moment of inexplicable color, power, excitement and hope that fades into darkness. I’m enjoying bringing that fleeting moment into a permanent space.”
The first two works below represent segments in the artist’s path toward healing from sexual abuse and exploitation. Before finding a trusted mentor, she would use magazines, tracing paper and other mark-making supplies to express ruminating feelings of despair in surreal and humorous ways. These works are a continuation of that process in drawing, painting and photography.
In the painting I Care About Your Hopes and Dreams, vintage figurines portray early grooming behavior used by sexual predators as a precursor to exploitation and abuse. The innocence of the little pale Girl Scout figurine sitting under the shelter of the school water fountain is contrasted by the bold and invasive Pinocchio character with his ever-growing tell-tale nose (and maybe something else!) Promises, promises… whatever it takes to get her to trust you enough.
Deeply Into Surrender is a figurative piece drawn and painted on a raw and unraveling canvas. The figure is collapsed into a fetal position, engaged in self-soothing by twisting ringlets of her hair through her fingers. Neutral tones and visibly explorative mark-making support this unraveling of the old, the Dark Night of the Soul. At this point of complete surrender, she understands that none of her coping mechanisms and trauma-bond relationships are working any longer, but she cannot see into tomorrow…and this is darkest moment before dawn. The death of her traumatized self, and the rebirth into what comes thereafter.
The second two paintings represent her soul’s exploration in 2025, as she paints the intensity of the sky at dusk as a precursor to the big change ahead in her life: to live out her days under the skies of Santa Fe and and Abiquiu New Mexico.
