Exhibition: Lauren Kalman — To Hold…

FREE Opening Reception: Friday, May 2, 6:00-9:00pm

To Hold… is a meditation on desire, control, and loss. The desire to hold close. The ability to smother. The presence of absence.

To Hold… is a collection of vessels and bronze tools by Lauren Kalman. The bronze tools are produced from castings of her body. They are produced in segments and used in concert to articulate the movement of the body’s joints. Used with multiple assistants, the castings together function like a human-scale puppet in the hot shop to cradle class vessels. The carefully controlled form of the vessel is lost with the imprint of the body leaving both a permanent distortion of the original form and the lasting imprint of the absent body. Additionally, the transparency of the glass creates a void or absence, holding space for loss.

Lauren Kalman is a visual artist based in Detroit, whose practice is rooted in craft, sculpture, video, photography and performance. Kalman completed her PhD in Practice-led Research from the School of Art and Design at the Australian National University. She earned an MFA in Art and Technology from the Ohio State University and a BFA with a focus in Metals from Massachusetts College of Art. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Françoise van den Bosch Foundation at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Renwick Gallery at Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Detroit Institute of Art, Museum of Arts and Design, and the Korean Ceramics Foundation. In 2020 she received the Françoise van den Bosch Award for her career’s impact on the jewelry field, in 2022 she received the Raphael Founders Prize in Glass from Contemporary for Craft, and in 2023 she was named a Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellow.

To Hold… was produced with help and support from Jason Forck, Jack Gramann, Claudia Kaiser, Chris Ross, Pittsburgh Glass Center, Wayne State University, Standard Fabrication & Forge (Detroit, MI), and Independent Casting (Philadelphia, PA).