Lauren Kalman focuses on the creation, documentation, and display of wearable sculpture, electronic adornments, photographs, video, and performance that critique the fashion industry’s ability to sexualize the experience of pain, disfigurement, illness, and abnormality and to promote this sexualization as a desirable aesthetic. Kalman’s work recognizes such uncomfortable connections in visual culture among body image, media, class, and style.

In the exhibition Spectacular: Works by Lauren Kalman, diseases like acne, cancer, herpes, and elephantiasis, or physical trauma like amputation and facial reconstruction surgery, are presented as jeweled infections, fabric growths, or wearable instruments. They are hybrids of the grotesque or undesirable aspects of the body and objects we associate with beauty, status, health, and/or wealth. You can watch Lauren’s “Spectacular” performance here.

About Lauren Kalman

Raised in the Midwest, Kalman completed her MFA in Art from Ohio State University and earned a BFA with a focus in metals from the Massachusetts College of Art. Kalman has taught at institutions including Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. Currently she is an Assistant Professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Kalman exhibits and lectures internationally and her work has been featured at venues including the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Contemporary Art Museum Houston, and the deCordova Museum in Massachusetts. Kalman’s video work has been screened in several international film festivals and her photographs and objects are included in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Renwick Gallery.

Read about the exhibition in this article by the Charleston City Paper!