Oct 05 2017
-
Dec 01 2017
Wild in Wonderland

Wild in Wonderland

at Unknown

Tapp’s Arts Center is pleased to announce its next exhibition, Wild in Wonderland, new works by Lauren Chapman. Presenting a magical world of feminine wild release, Chapman has created an immersive environment for viewers to experience the visual delight and seductive quality of pattern, texture and the human figure as it relates to play and empowerment.

In the innocence of childhood, playing pretend allows one to step outside of reality and experience new possibilities and develop new truths. Centered inside Tapp’s Arts Center, Chapman has manifested her own fantasy world focused on womanhood and the absence of rules. Duck through a rabbit hole at the front of the gallery to encounter works that depict a universe full of jungle vegetation, wild animals, embellished patterns and women fully embracing their being.

Lauren Chapman’s process begins with a person. She instinctively chooses models for her work and photographs them, carefully constructing the pose, lighting, and props. She makes detailed color studies from the photos, and combines these with her imaginative environments, filling her canvases with bright patterns, magical realism imagery, and thick tactile surfaces. Chapman’s inspirations come from her experiences becoming a full time artist, embracing the philosophy that in painting there are no rules – anything goes. Recent contemporary influences derive from revisiting the bad-assery from her childhood, such as Lisa Frank, as well as the lush patterns from Gucci’s newest throwback campaign.

Lauren Chapman was born in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma in 1990. Chapman works predominantly in the medium of oil painting on canvas. She received a Bachelors in Fine Arts in Painting at the University of South Carolina. The summer of 2015 she spent a semester studying abroad in Italy and received a fully funded art residency the summer of 2016 at the International Center for the Arts in Monte Castello, Italy.

She has received the The Scholastic Art & Writing Gold Key Award for excellence in Visual Arts, and the Yaghjian Studio arts scholarship at USC. She was featured in the 2016 fall issue of The Jasper Project Magazine as a finalist for visual artist of the year. Chapman has recently exhibited in the 2016 “Artfields” festival, both the “Figure out” and the “Marked by the Water” exhibits at Tapp’s Art Center, the South Carolina State Library “SCstrong” exhibit, a solo exhibition at the Pearson Lakes Art Center titled: “Repetitions,” and her BFA thesis show “You Can’t Hide Sound” at Gallery 80808.

Tapp’s Arts Center is giant artistic laboratory focused on community engagement. We encourage artistic agency through exhibitions, cultural events, workshops, classes, and studios to help Columbia create, learn and grow.

Admission Info

Free and Open to the Public

Dates & Times

2017/10/05 - 2017/12/01

Location Info