EXHIBITION IMAGES | WORKS | PRESS RELEASE | ARTIST PAGE
JUNE 28 – JULY 14, 2014
Reviewing the way that Luloff has explored domesticity — arguably her portfolio’s seminal concept — provides useful insight into the way that she commands in tandem the various aspects of her practice. The regularly occurring motif fascinates the patient artist, and she has spent years surveying its contours. During our lively conversation in her rather dreamy Bushwick studio, Luloff says, “the idea of the domestic has always been important, has always been a huge focus for me…the idea of a peaceful home or a disturbed home… I feel like, in one way or another, I make a lot of home environments.” In its fundamental-most, literal-most iteration, domesticity is imbued into Luloff’s practice by way of the swaths of used bed sheets included in every piece; they conjure for the audience thoughts of sensation, of sex and skin and comfort, and, perhaps most significantly to Luloff, life lived.
Her work also indicates that she understands the idea as a multidimensional one, and casually yet decisively explores its varying moods. Taking it into its more folkloric dimensions, for example, she spent months living in India learning the ancient technique of block printing. This not only resulted in the incorporation of the practice into her work (significant because pattern has always functioned as both a visual outcome and an operational device, here) but also, in subtle patches of Islamic-patterned cloth showing up in recent pieces. Still, what might be most appealing about Luloff’s fascination with the subject is her apparent genuine intrigue. Even the attention fixated on her process and materials seem to acknowledge this fact. Consensus of opinion on her use of bed sheets, for example, seems to be that they are unique without feeling gaudy or contrived. And it is that fact — that they are genuinely odd – that leads me to think that earnestness might be an essential part of her practice. Luloff, has been working with bed sheets for fifteen years now; with bleach for four. This long standing commitment to mastering her materials pushes the work toward truth in a way that only earnest devotion can. A dedicated practitioner of art, Lauren Luloff makes work by means of an exceptionally dynamic practice. Those wispy, delicate, fantastical paintings with their focused painterly directives and goals are well deserving of their consistent praise.”
-Kendra Patrick June 21, 2014
Taken from her essay on Turbulence. You can read her article on Lauren Luloff in its entirety on turbulenceartproject.com