About the Artist

Lauren Camp is the daughter of a genteel woman from the Midwest and a Jewish emigré from Baghdad. In a house where art was neither taboo nor respected, Lauren became an artist. She holds degrees in human development, oral interpretation of literature, and advertising and public relations – all important skills for getting through life. But she learned about art on her own.

 

Following a brief stint of nonprofit work and freelance writing, Lauren devoted herself fully to visual art and poetry. In the past 13 years, Lauren’s innovative, award-winning pieces have been in major publications and exhibited at performance spaces, on movie sets, and in cultural centers and museums in the U.S. and Europe. Images of her work and the companion poetry have been featured in numerous publications, including the Santa Fean, Jazziz and World Watch, and the poetry journals Brilliant Corners and Impetus.

 

Her work is housed in numerous private and public collections, including The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma; St. Vincent Children’s Hospital of Indiana; and the United States Embassies in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan and Bamako, Mali. She has created large-scale, community-based commissions for the Jesus Rodarte Cultural Center (Greeley, Colorado) and Kaiser Permanente Hospital (Panorama City, California).

 

“The Fabric of Jazz,” her series of jazz portraits, toured museums in ten U.S. cities between 2004 and 2007. Her newest body of work is a multimedia installation featuring sound, sculpture and fiber art. This series, “Flinch: A Study of Your Self,” will be on exhibit at the Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque, NM during March 2009. Other exhibit highlights include the Fiber Art Biennial in Chieri, Italy; the NAACP Annual Meeting; and a human rights survey exhibit entitled “Roots of Racism – Ignorance and Fear.”

 

She has held residency positions at Working Classroom in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the New Brunswick (New Jersey) Public Schools, working with students from disadvantaged communities. Lauren has also mentored adults in creativity and self-expression. She is the recipient of a two-month “Sea Change” Residency by the Gaea Foundation of Washington, D.C., an organization that celebrates arts and activism. She received a substantial grant from the Surface Design Association to complete work on “Flinch.”

 

In addition, each week she hosts and produces a very popular jazz program for public radio station KSFR 101.1 FM.