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Biography
Lauren Strohacker is an eco-political artist who emphasizes the non-human in an increasingly human-centric world. Her practice is grounded in community, layering public and private space with representations of wild animals.
Strohacker’s work is an antithesis of, if not an antidote for, Shifting Baseline Syndrome–the communal process of forgetting natural systems over time, normalizing the ongoing degradation of those systems–in the context of wild animals. Strohacker's practice is co-creative and cross-disciplinary, collaborating with wildlife organizations, artists, experts, and community members on site-specific projects. Together, they “reintroduce” wild animals into human-centric spaces in ways that are uniquely responsive to the target sites and the ecoregion. Projects focus on animals who have been controlled, displaced, eradicated, and, eventually, forgotten by anthropocentric societies. These creative reintroductions are achieved through street art, digital projection, sound installation, sculpture, and new media. Conceptually, placing wild animals in human spaces reflects larger contexts of ecology, politics, and radical interspecies municipalism.
Recent Shows and/or Exhibitions
2024
The Best Advice I Have Ever Got Was From A Bear, ◇ (group), Visions West Contemporary, Bozeman MT
Un/Natural Selections: Wildlife in Contemporary Art ◇ (curated), Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Norman,
OK (curator: Tammi Hanawalt, Associate Curator of Art)
2023
Un/Natural Selections: Wildlife in Contemporary Art ◇ (curated), Hudson River Museum, Yonkers NY
(curator: Tammi Hanawalt, Associate Curator of Art)
Re-Pair / Re-Connect (group), The Emporium Center, Knoxville TN (Selected top 3 by guest jurors Ashlee
Mays, Director, Museum of Infinite Outcomes & Micheal Giles, Associate Professor of Art, Lincoln Memorial
University
Un/Natural Selections: Wildlife in Contemporary Art ◇ (curated), James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art,
St. Petersburg FL (curator: Tammi Hanawalt, Associate Curator of Art)
Un/Natural Selections: Wildlife in Contemporary Art ◇ (curated), Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston SC
(curator: Tammi Hanawalt, Associate Curator of Art)
2022
Un/Natural Selections: Wildlife in Contemporary Art ◇ (curated), Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA
(curator: Tammi Hanawalt, Associate Curator of Art)
Old Red, I Know Where Thou Dwellest ◇ (solo), Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA),
Winston-Salem NC
Light Art Grindelwald, Animal Land, Commissioned and funded by Grindelwald Tourism, Grindelwald,
Switzerland
Wilderverse (curated), Visions West Contemporary, Livingston MT (curators: Nikki Todd and Patrick Gillis)
2021
This Earth ◇ (curated), Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA), Cedar City, UT (curators: Stefan Hagan,
Director, Montello Foundation & Hikmet Loe, Research Fellow, Holt/Smithson Foundation)
Un/Natural Selections: Wildlife in Contemporary Art ◇ (curated), National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson
WY (curator: Tammi Hanawalt, Associate Curator of Art)
2020
Incantations Electronic (solo), A1LabArts, Knoxville TN
Lauren Strohacker is an eco-political artist who emphasizes the non-human in an increasingly human-centric world. Her practice is grounded in community, layering public and private space with representations of wild animals.
Strohacker’s work is an antithesis of, if not an antidote for, Shifting Baseline Syndrome–the communal process of forgetting natural systems over time, normalizing the ongoing degradation of those systems–in the context of wild animals. Strohacker's practice is co-creative and cross-disciplinary, collaborating with wildlife organizations, artists, experts, and community members on site-specific projects. Together, they “reintroduce” wild animals into human-centric spaces in ways that are uniquely responsive to the target sites and the ecoregion. Projects focus on animals who have been controlled, displaced, eradicated, and, eventually, forgotten by anthropocentric societies. These creative reintroductions are achieved through street art, digital projection, sound installation, sculpture, and new media. Conceptually, placing wild animals in human spaces reflects larger contexts of ecology, politics, and radical interspecies municipalism.
Recent Shows and/or Exhibitions
2024
The Best Advice I Have Ever Got Was From A Bear, ◇ (group), Visions West Contemporary, Bozeman MT
Un/Natural Selections: Wildlife in Contemporary Art ◇ (curated), Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Norman,
OK (curator: Tammi Hanawalt, Associate Curator of Art)
2023
Un/Natural Selections: Wildlife in Contemporary Art ◇ (curated), Hudson River Museum, Yonkers NY
(curator: Tammi Hanawalt, Associate Curator of Art)
Re-Pair / Re-Connect (group), The Emporium Center, Knoxville TN (Selected top 3 by guest jurors Ashlee
Mays, Director, Museum of Infinite Outcomes & Micheal Giles, Associate Professor of Art, Lincoln Memorial
University
Un/Natural Selections: Wildlife in Contemporary Art ◇ (curated), James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art,
St. Petersburg FL (curator: Tammi Hanawalt, Associate Curator of Art)
Un/Natural Selections: Wildlife in Contemporary Art ◇ (curated), Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston SC
(curator: Tammi Hanawalt, Associate Curator of Art)
2022
Un/Natural Selections: Wildlife in Contemporary Art ◇ (curated), Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA
(curator: Tammi Hanawalt, Associate Curator of Art)
Old Red, I Know Where Thou Dwellest ◇ (solo), Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA),
Winston-Salem NC
Light Art Grindelwald, Animal Land, Commissioned and funded by Grindelwald Tourism, Grindelwald,
Switzerland
Wilderverse (curated), Visions West Contemporary, Livingston MT (curators: Nikki Todd and Patrick Gillis)
2021
This Earth ◇ (curated), Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA), Cedar City, UT (curators: Stefan Hagan,
Director, Montello Foundation & Hikmet Loe, Research Fellow, Holt/Smithson Foundation)
Un/Natural Selections: Wildlife in Contemporary Art ◇ (curated), National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson
WY (curator: Tammi Hanawalt, Associate Curator of Art)
2020
Incantations Electronic (solo), A1LabArts, Knoxville TN