sister dreamer lauren halsey’s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles

Melding architecture and sculpture, sister dreamer lauren halsey’s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles is a sculpture park and monument to South Central Los Angeles, the neighborhood artist Lauren Halsey and her family have lived in for generations.

Located on the corner of Western Avenue and 76th Street in South Central LA, the work invites residents and community members to envision what creative innovation can look like outside of traditional venues for contemporary art.

Lauren Halsey (b. 1987 Los Angeles) produces standalone sculptures, graphically maximalist collages that blend real and imagined geographies, and site specific projects that include immersive installations that bridge sculpture and architecture. Based in South Central Los Angeles where her family has lived for several generations, Halsey rethinks the possibilities for art, architecture, and community engagement. Combining found, fabricated, and handmade objects, Halsey’s work maintains a sense of civic urgency and free-flowing imagination, reflecting the lives of the people and places around her. Through critiques of gentrification and disenfranchisement paired with real-world proposals that celebrate on-the-ground aesthetics, Halsey creates a visionary form of culture that is at once radical and collaborative. In March of 2026 Halsey opened sister dreamer lauren halsey’s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles, a major public sculpture park in South Central LA on view through September 2027.

Halsey has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions including Serpentine, London, England (2024); Seattle Art Museum, WA (2022); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (2021); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France (2019); and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (2018). Halsey presented monumental site-specific installations at Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2024 and at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden in 2023. Halsey is the 2021 recipient of the Seattle Art Museum’s Gwendolyn Knight | Jacob Lawrence Prize and received the Mohn Award for artistic excellence at the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A. 2018 biennial. Recent group exhibitions include Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876–Now, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (2024–2025); Reverberations, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (2024); He Said/She Said: Contemporary Women Artists Interject, Dallas Museum of Art, TX (2023); The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, Baltimore Museum of Art, MD (2023); and Black American Portraits, Los Angeles County Museum of Art,CA (2021). Her work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Brooklyn Museum, NY; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Columbus Museum of Art, OH; The Broad, Los Angeles, CA; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL. In 2020, Halsey founded Summaeverythang Community Center and is currently in the process of constructing sister dreamer, lauren halsey’s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles, a major public sculpture park in South Central Los Angeles. Halsey lives and works in Los Angeles.

sister dreamer lauren halsey’s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles will host film screenings, health and wellness events, community-centric celebrations, jazz nights, sport activations, lecture series, tutoring, and youth-engaged programs, conceived and led by Halsey’s nonprofit organization, Summaeverythang Community Center.

More information on upcoming programs can be found on Summaeverythang Community Center's website.

sister dreamer lauren halsey’s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles is presented by Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) and curated by LAND co-founder Christine Y. Kim. This work is realized by Lauren Halsey in collaboration with the architecture studio Current Interests, Taslimi Construction, and Green House.

sister dreamer lauren halsey’s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles is made possible with lead support from the Mellon Foundation and generous support from donors, including: Angeles Art Fund; Candy, Michael, Robert and Julia Barasch; Harrison & Brittany Barnes; Dr. Eraka Bath; Allison and Larry Berg; Anita Blanchard; Maverick Carter and LeBron James; David Kordansky; East West Bank; George and Azita Fatheree; Will Ferrell and Viveca Paulin-Ferrell; Ford Foundation; Larry Gagosian; Charles Gaines and Roxana Landaverde; Troy Garity; The Genco-Kamin Family; Agnes Gund; The Hearthland Foundation; Eric and Terri Holoman; Rashid Johnson and Sheree Hovsepian; Carolyn and Tom Liesy; The Maurice Marciano Family Foundation; Julie Mehretu; Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts; Brad Pitt; Ayesha Selden and Devin W. Blackburn, Esq; Sherman Family Foundation; V. Joy Simmons, MD; Terra Foundation for American Art; Mickalene Thomas; and George Wells and Manfred Rantner.

Photos by Allen Chen/@_h_studio