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Photo Credit: @abstrac.t

Lauren Cohen is a multidisciplinary artist whose work blends painting, ceramics, installation, and performance to explore power, identity, and theatricality through a distinctly surreal Americana lens. Drawing from her upbringing in Puritan-rooted New England, Cohen stages fictionalized interiors and absurd character tableaux that blur the line between personal history and cultural myth.

 

Her paintings and sculptures feature distorted domestic symbols—quilted ships, Civil War-era figurines, anthropomorphized ceramic foods that evoke both humor and psychological tension. Recurring motifs such as folk textiles, drag-like personas, and handcrafted props reflect her ongoing interest in performance, repression, and the uncanny logic of inherited belief systems.

 

Cohen’s lived experience as a cue card girl for Saturday Night Live and a Chelsea Gallerina informs her staged, performative world. These roles become source material for characters that expose power dynamics and the subtle choreography of control, labor, and identity. Without overt labels, her work engages the language of gender performance and codes of behavior, often through comedic artifice.

 

Rooted in narrative yet resistant to resolution, Cohen’s work constructs theatrical environments where humor and trauma coexist. Through layered references and meticulously staged objects, she examines the quiet violence of domestic life and the surreal elasticity of American cultural memory.

Lauren Cohen holds a BFA from California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA and a Masters from Royal College of Art, London, UK. Her work has been exhibited at Marinaro Gallery, New York; The Hole, New York; Ace Hotel, New York; KinoSaito, New York; ArtPort, New York; Raynham Hall Museum, New York; Ghost Machine Gallery, New York; Felix Art Fair Presented by Voloshyn Gallery, Los Angeles; Future Fair Presented by LoftProjects, New York; Westbeth Gallery, New York; Wassaic Project, New York; Spring/Break Art Show, New York; The Museum of Modern Art Department of Film, New York; Van Der Plas Gallery, New York; Trestle Gallery, New York; The Maine Jewish Museum, Portland; Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco; The di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, California; The London Institute of Contemporary Art; The Blyth Gallery, London; and Goldsmiths College of London. She has been an Artist in Residence at MacDowell, NARS, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and MASS MoCA. Previous juried exhibitions include Bloomberg New Contemporaries, The Catlin Guide, and Saatchi New Sensations. Forthcoming exhibitions: Powerhouse Arts, Brooklyn, NY and Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA

Upcoming/Current

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September 2025: Gallerina: (Do Not) Disturb, Powerhouse Arts, Brooklyn, NY 11215

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October 2026: La Grande Bouffe, two-person exhibition with Marianna Rothen, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA

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Past:​​

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May 7-10: Future Fair, 535 West 28th New York, NY 10001

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February 27 - March 30thEcho Chamber, The Hole312 BoweryNew York City, NY 10012

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March 14, 2025 - "The Fisherman" performance at ShapeShifter Lab presented by Park Slope Food Co-op: 837 Union St, Brooklyn

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January 12, 2025 - Objectum, Puppets on the Edge, Ryan Wilde's Studio: 6600 Borden Ave. Maspeth Queens

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9/26/24 - 11/29/24 Gallerina: (Do Not) Disturb ACE Hotel, Manhattan Residency and Exhibition.

Curated by Eric Shiner. Art World Chess matches every Sunday & Wednesday in October. Sponsored by Powerhouse Arts. â€‹â€‹

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4/11/24 - 9/15/24 American Dream: The Elusive Promise of the Pursuit of Happiness. Curated by Yellow Cat Gallery at Raynham Hall Museum (30 W Main St, Oyster Bay)

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7/19/24 10am - 5pm Brian's Wieners at KinoSaito and 7/18-7/21 Camp KingstonUPAW (Upstate Art Weekend) 2024 

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6/14/24 Lauren Cohen's Graphic Novels: Artist Talk & Book Signing. 5:30PM - 8:30PM Raynham Hall Museum (30 W Main St, Oyster Bay)​

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4/9/2024 Artist Talk: "A Conversation on Humor, Vulnerability, and the Shaping of Narratives" & Book Launch: "The Invisible Cue Card Girl" 6:30PM at Powerhouse Arts, Gowanus, NY

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