Lauren Grossman

Traver Gallery is pleased to present Talk Show, a solo exhibition of new work by Seattle-based artist Lauren Grossman. In this series, Grossman continues her exploration of Judeo-Christian texts. This time, turning her attention to the conversational exchanges embedded within them, she re-examines and translates these archaic sources into the language of contemporary art.

In Talk Show, Grossman transforms speech into sculpture, extracting and dissecting conversations and monologues and rebuilding them as intricate hand-formed constructions. Works such as Hedge frame a brief exchange between God and Satan, while Genesis Object maps the sequential declarations of creation. Others use vertical or linear frameworks that visually reflect the pacing or structure of the original text she’s referencing. The resulting sculptures exist between language and architecture—dense, irregular, and grounded in the labor of their making.

Grossman’s process is deliberately physical. Each word and phrase is cut, carved, or etched by hand, methodically and physically transforming language into material. She shares, “I have no particular interest in the legibility of these texts in the finished work. I am, however, deeply invested in the process of hand-forming the text structures. This labor imparts a haptic quality to the work that cannot be achieved more efficiently. Editing to just the spoken bits of text gave me snarly clusters to organize in space—exercising my love of scaffolding”. Merging her practical hardware-store aesthetic with ephemeral, slippery spiritual ideas, Grossman invites us into an ambiguous, rich dialogue with her sculptures. Their awkward, uncertain beauty conveys earnest attention to material, meaning, and her endeavor to find contemporary poignancy in the oddness and curious beauty of old conventions.

Lauren Grossman graduated from the University of Washington ceramics program in 1983 and has since maintained an active studio practice in Seattle. She has presented over twenty solo exhibitions, and her work is held in the collections of Microsoft, Tacoma Art Museum, and the John Michael Kohler Art Center. Reviews of her work have appeared in Art in America, Sculpture, and Artweek. Grossman has received awards from the Flintridge and Groot Foundations, the Seattle Artists Award, and residencies at Pilchuck Glass School and Kohler Arts/Industry.