ABOUT

Lauren Woods (she/her) is an artist whose practice and creative research explore concepts of mythic time. Artworks become spaces to examine notions of nostalgia, desire, power, beauty, death, and embodied expression. Personal myth is developed visually across various mediums such as painting, video, and dance performances.

Born in Mobile, Alabama, Lauren received her MFA in painting from the New York Academy of Art after completing her BA in studio art at Spring Hill College. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of Art in the Department of Art & Art History at Auburn University, where she teaches figure drawing and painting.

Lauren has exhibited in galleries across the US and abroad. Regionally, she has shown work at the Gadsden Museum of Art, the Huntsville Museum of Art, the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, the Mobile Museum of Art, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, and the Wiregrass Museum of Art. She is also a recipient of a 2024 Individual Visual Arts Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. 

In addition to painting, she has worked in partnership with Sheep Meadow Dance Theatre under the direction of Billy Blanken and 10K Productions for the visual art direction of four live multimedia dance performances performed through Culture Lab LIC in Long Island City, NY. Their most recent collaboration, SMDT Season IV: An Evening of New Classics, was supported by a 2023 New Works Grant through the Queens Arts Fund.

LAUREN N. WOODS – Instagram: @laurenwoodsart

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

SOLO

2024

Forest Elegy, Buckham Gallery, Flint, MI 

2023

Invocation, Amelia Center Gallery, Gulf Coast State College, Panama City, FL

Alternate Worlds, HPL Galleries, Hoover Public Library, Hoover, AL

2022        

Natural Rites, Rall Gallery, Doane University, Crete, NE

2021        

Dream State, Anna Lamar Switzer Center for Visual Arts, Pensacola State College, Pensacola, FL

Solo Exhibition: Dream State, The InArt Gallery (online exhibition)

2020      

Mythic Nature, Gadsden Museum of Art, Gadsden, AL

2013        

Semblance, University of Mobile, Mobile, AL

2012        

Delicate, The Host Gallery, Mobile, AL

2010        

Somewhere In Between, The Mobile Arts Council, Mobile, AL

2006        

And So It Is, Spring Hill College Eichold Gallery, Mobile, AL

SMALL GROUP SHOWS

2024

How to traverse a vessel, with Nikita Vishnevskiy, James May Gallery, Milwaukee, WI 

2022        

Axis Mundi, with Sarah West, Ground Floor Contemporary, Birmingham, AL 

Oracle & Odyssey, with Erin Cross, Eichold Gallery, Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL 

Neighbor Nature, with Wendy DesChene, Lauren Howard, and Chuck Hemard, Poole Art Gallery, University of Montevallo, Montevallo, AL

2021        

Hierophanic Territories, with Liza Butts and Tracie Noles-Ross, Ground Floor Contemporary, Birmingham, AL

2016        

Contemporary Nostalgia, with Amanda Napper and Michael Vaughn Sims, Spring Hill College Eichold Gallery, Mobile, AL

2014        

Anamnesis, in collaboration with Mehrdad Vaghefi, Optera Creative, Mobile, AL

2007        

Entrechat Trois, in collaboration with Mehrdad Vaghefi and Lynne Weeks, The Mobile Arts Council, Mobile, AL

GROUP

2024

POWER DYNAMICS, Powerhouse Arts, Brooklyn, NY, Alumni Association New York Academy of Art, curated by Eric Shiner, President, Powerhouse Arts, Brooklyn, NY 

SECAC 2024 Members’ Juried Exhibition, Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design galleries, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, juror: Alice Stone Collins, Independent Artist, Atlanta, GA 

AU Connection, Auburn Art Association Invitational, Jan Dempsey Art Center, Auburn, AL 

2024 Fellowship Exhibition, Georgine Clarke Alabama Artists Gallery, Alabama State Council on the Arts, Montgomery, AL, curator: Amy Jenkins, Visual Arts Program Manager and Gallery Director Alabama State Council on the Arts, Montgomery, AL 

Interpreting Movement: Manifestations of Expression, Utah Valley University, Orem, UT

7th Louisiana Biennial: National Juried Exhibition, Louisiana Tech University School of Design, Ruston, LA, juror: Laura Blereau, Curator of Exhibitions, Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 

2023

Alabama A to Z, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL, juror: Dana Marie-Lemmer, Executive Director and Curator, Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, AL

Nature’s not in it, NV Showroom, Santa Ana, CA 

The Elastic Mind, South Gallery, Broward College South Campus, Pembroke Pines, FL

The Begonia, Ground Floor Contemporary, Birmingham, AL

Enchanted Forest, Tribeca Ball, New York Academy of Art, NY, NY 

2022

Negotiations: Portraits, Georgine Clarke Alabama Artists Gallery, Alabama State Council on the Arts, Montgomery, AL, curator: Amy Jenkins, Visual Arts Program Manager and Gallery Director Alabama State Council on the Arts, Montgomery, AL 

SECAC 2022 Members’ Juried Exhibition, Decker Gallery, MICA, Baltimore, MD, juror: Jeffrey Kent, independent artist and Artistic Director, Peale Art Center, Baltimore, MD 

Body Talk, Target Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, VA, juror: Matt Storm, independent artist, Washington D.C. 

23 Annual Will’s Creek Exhibition of Fine Art, Saville Gallery, Allegany Arts Council, Cumberland, MD, juror: Ian Alden Russell, Curator, Educator & Artistic Director Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA 

B22: Wiregrass Biennial, Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, AL (upcoming), jurors: Meredith Lynn, curator of the Museum of Fine Arts and director of Galleries for the College of Fine Arts at Florida State University; Tina Ruggieri, assistant curator at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts; and Daniel White, director of the Paul R. Jones Museum of American Art, and the director of The University Gallery at The University of Alabama

Wax and Wane, Stay Home Gallery, Paris, TN, juror: Anna McKeown, independent artist/curator Nashville, TN 

FUTURETRO: 18th Athens Digital Arts Festival, Kotzia Square, Athens City Center, Athens, Greece, juror: Alex Karantanas, video art curator, Athens Digital Arts Festival, Athens, Greece

ESTIA Day Fest (film screening), presented by Salvatore LaRussa Dance Theatre, Queens, NY 

Tide Pools, Ground Floor Contemporary, Birmingham, AL 

Focus on Figures 2022, North River Arts Society, Marshfield Hills, MA, juror: Dan Thompson, Dean of Fine Arts, Studio Incamminati School for Contemporary Realist Art in Philadelphia, PA.

AU Faculty Exhibition 7, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn, AL, curators: Aaron Levi Garvey, Director of Curatorial Affairs, and Jessica Hughes Hill, Curatorial Assistant, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art Auburn, AL

2021               

Six Degrees of Separation: A Retrospective Film Festival (film screening), presented by Six Degrees Dance, with works by Sheep Meadow Dance Theatre, Angie Conte, Julie Carter, Inclined Dance Project, One Day Dance, and Six Degrees Dance, New York, NY 

Circle, CICA Museum (Czong Institute for Contemporary Art), Gimpo, South Korea

Our DNA, Kehler Liddell Gallery, New Haven, CT

Artfields 2021, regional juried exhibition/festival, Lake City, SC

jurors: Erin Jane Nelson, Director of Burnaway.org, Atlanta, GA; Jacqueline Keane Adams, Director of Education and Engagement, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC; Toya Northington, Community Outreach Manager, Speed Museum, Louisville, KY; Willie Little, Independent Artist and Author, San Francisco, CA; Peter J. Baldaia, Director of Curatorial Affairs, Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL

Storied References, Northern Illinois Museum of Art, DeKalb, IL, jurors: Josephine Burke, Director; Peter Olson, Assistant Director, Northern Illinois Museum of Art, DeKalb, IL

Movements, Moments, Target Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, VA

juror: Eames Armstrong, Independent Artist/Curator, Brooklyn, NY

2020        

Quarantine, Amelia Center Gallery, Gulf Coast State College, Panama City, FL

curator: Pavel Amromin, Gallery Director, Gulf Coast State College, Panama City, FL

The New Pre-Raphaelites, Harcum College and Era Contemporary Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (online exhibition)

juror: Jessica Libor, Director, Era Contemporary Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

A Figural Exhibition, The In Art Gallery, Edwardsville, IL (online exhibition)

juror: Forrest Solis, Associate Director of the School of Art at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

Contaminated, Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy, Minneapolis, MN (online exhibition)

The Art of Water IV, James May Gallery, Algoma, WI (online exhibition)

juror: Kendra Bulgrin, Director, James May Gallery, Algoma, WI

Eros and Thanatos, Buckham Gallery, Flint, MI, juror: Ed Fraga, Independent Artist, Detroit, MI

2019  

When Darkness Falls: Night Explorations, Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center, Solomon, MD, juror: Robyn Strayer, Senior Program & Exhibitions Specialist, Annemarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center, Solomon, MD

O, international juried exhibition, Portmanteau Project Space, Dayton OH, juror: Carolyn Chema, Independent Artist and Director Portmanteau Project Space, Dayton, OH     

Contemporary 2019: Contemporary Figure, Western Colorado Center for the Arts, Grand Junction, CO, juror: Ron Hicks, Independent Artist, Denver, CO

Artfields 2019, regional juried exhibition/festival, Lake City, SC, jurors: Paul Barrett, Independent Curator, Birmingham, AL; George Blakely, Professor Emeritus Florida State University; S. Marquette Folley, Content Director, Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Washington, DC; Brian Lang, Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary Craft, Arkansas Arts Center; and Pam Wall, Exhibitions Consultant Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC

His-ter’-ee-uh, ARC Gallery and Educational Foundation, Chicago, IL, juror: Olive Stefanski, Independent Artist, Chicago, IL

AU Faculty Exhibition, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn, AL, curator: Jessica Hughes Hill, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art Curatorial Assistant, Auburn, AL

Night: 28th Annual Strathmore Juried Exhibition, Strathmore Hall Foundation, Bethseda, MD, jurors: Adah Rose Bitterbaum, Director Adah Rose Gallery, Kensington, MD and Erwin Timmers, Co-founder Washington Glass Studio and School, Washington D.C.

2018

Activating the Apparatus, Vol 2, The B Complex, Atlanta, GA, juror: Brandy Wednesday, Independent Artist, Brooklyn, NY

And Now for Something New, Vol 1, LeMieux Galleries, New Orleans, LA, jurors: Michael Deas, Independent Artist, New Orleans, LA and Jan Gilbert, Independent Artist, New Orleans, LA           

Gulf Coast Contemporary: Selected Works by Artists from Lower Alabama, Tennessee Valley Museum of Art, Tuscumbia, AL, curator: Phillip Counselman, Chair, Department of Visual Arts at the University of Mobile, Mobile, AL

do it, conceived and curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL, curator of record: Elizabet Elliott, Executive Director, Alabama Contemporary Art Center, Mobile, AL

She is of the South, Amelia Center for the Arts, Gulf Coast State College, Panama City, FL, curator: Pavel Amromin, Gallery Director, Gulf Coast State College, Panama City, FL

2017        

Art:Work, Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL

2016        

 Fear, Gulf Art Space, Fairhope, AL

Natural Response, Spring Hill College, and the University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL

Artfields 2016, regional juried exhibition/festival, Lake City, SC, jurors: Bradford R. Collins, Professor of Art History, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC; David Houston, Art Historian/Curator, Brooklyn, NY; and Stephanie Meyer Heydt, Margaret and Terry Stent Curator of American Art, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA

2015

Hot Dry Men, Cold Wet Women, Mark Miller Gallery, New York, NY, curator: Cara DeAngelis, Independent Artist, Norwalk, CT

2014                 

Hippie Priest, Honey Ramka Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, curator: Nikita Vishnevskiy, Independent Artist, Los Angeles, CA

The Red Clay Survey, Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL, juror: Susanna Coffey, F. H. Sellers Professor in Painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (emeritus), Chicago, IL

Art of the State 2014, Tennessee Valley Museum of Art, Tuscumbia, AL

2013       

1×4 Analogy, Spring Hill College Eichold Gallery, Mobile, AL

Valdosta National Exhibition, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GA, juror: Margaret Morrison, Associate Professor of Art, University of Georgia, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Athens, GA

2012        

4×1: Artacopia, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL

20th Southeast Arts Exhibition, Mattie Kelly Arts Center, Fort Walton Beach, FL

The Figure Now, Fontbonne University, St. Louis, MO, juror: Kent Williams, Independent Artist, Los Angeles, CA

2011        

Contours, Five Independent Visions, Thomas Werner Gallery, New York, NY

curator: Cristina Tafuri, Creative Director/Exhibition Designer, New York, NY

2010         

Decades Exhibition, The New York Academy of Art, New York, NY

You Naughty Children, 2010 Graduate Thesis Exhibition, The New York Academy of Art, New York, NY

PRODUCTION DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE COLLABORATIONS

2023

Sheep Meadow Season IV, production design and video animation for performance/livestream in collaboration with Sheep Meadow Dance Theatre under the direction of Billy Blanken, and 10K Productions, Culture Lab LIC at The Plaxall Gallery, Long Island City, NY 

2022

Mobile Ballet 35th Anniversary Gala, scenic design, Mobile Civic Center Theatre, Mobile, AL

2021        

Circle/Cycle, dance performance and choreography, with Lori Bilbrey-Vaghefi and Ava Reding, original music Interaction-Time by Erin Cross, Lamar Studio at Anna Lamar Switzer Center for Visual Art at Pensacola State College, Pensacola, FL

Sheep Meadow Season III: Sleeping Beauty, production design and video animation for performance/livestream in collaboration with Sheep Meadow Dance Theatre under the direction of Billy Blanken, and 10K Productions, Culture Lab LIC at The Plaxall Gallery, Long Island City, NY

2020        

Sheep Meadow Season II, production design and video animation for performance/livestream in collaboration with Sheep Meadow Dance Theatre under the direction of Billy Blanken, and 10K Productions, Culture Lab LIC at The Plaxall Gallery, Long Island City, NY

2019        

Body Tides, concept, production design and video animation, live performance in collaboration with Sheep Meadow Dance Theatre under the direction of Billy Blanken with original music produced by Jack Ray, Culture Lab LIC at The Plaxall Gallery, Long Island City, NY

2013        

Project Mouvement in Art’s Carnival of The Animals, costume and production design,  Saenger Theater, Mobile, AL

2010        

Glimpses of Another Side, scenic design, Kathryn Noletto Felis, MFA concert, Nancy Smith Fichter Dance Theatre, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL

HONORS AND AWARDS

2024

Individual Artist Career Opportunity Grant, South Arts, Atlanta, GA

College of Liberal Arts Semester Release from Teaching 2024-2025, Auburn University 

2023

Thornton Clark Award, Alabama A to Z: 45th Biennial Museum Exhibition, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL

Individual Fellowship, Visual Arts, Alabama State Council on the Arts, Montgomery, AL 

College of Liberal Arts Teaching Excellence Award, Auburn University

2022        

McClure-Scanlin Visual Artist Residency Award, Lillian E. Smith Center at Piedmont University, Clayton, GA

2021        

Fall 2021 Lamar Studio Artist – Anna Lamar Switzer Center for Visual Arts, Pensacola State College, Pensacola, FL

Daniel F. Breeden Endowed Grant for Faculty Enhancement, Auburn University, Project: Contemporary Cast Sculpture Drawing: Bringing Greater Diversity and Inclusion into the Studio Art Classroom.

Athena Standards Residency, artist residency, Athens, Greece

2020        

Honorable Mention, A Figural Exhibition, juror Forrest Solis, The In Art Gallery, Edwardsville, IL (online exhibition)

New Faculty Summer Research Grant, Auburn University

New Faculty Semester Release for Research, Auburn University

2019        

Vermont Studio Center Residency, Johnson, VT July 2019

2016        

Performing Artist of the Year Nominee, Mobile Arts Council, Mobile, AL

2015        

Mobile Bay Magazine, 40 under 40, Community Leadership Award, Mobile, AL

2013        

Merit Award (Third Place), Valdosta National Exhibition, Curated by Margaret Morrison, Valdosta, GA

2012        

Merit Award (Third Place), 20th Southeast Arts Exhibition, Mattie Kelly Arts Center, Fort Walton Beach, FL

2010        

Artist in Residence, Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL

2009        

Merit Scholarship, The New York Academy of Art, New York, NY

 EDUCATION

2010         MFA, Painting, Cum Laude, The New York Academy of Art, New York, NY

2006         BA, Studio Art, Summa Cum Laude, Honors Program, Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

2018 – Current         Associate Professor of Art, Drawing and Painting, Auburn University, Auburn, AL

2011-2018                 Adjunct Instructor, Visual Arts, Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL

2011-2018                 Adjunct Instructor, Visual Arts, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL

PAPERS AND CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION

2023

Southern Humanities Council National Conference, San Antonio, TX

Conference Theme: Myths and Mythmaking

Paper presentation: Mythic Time and Cycles of Creating

2022        

SECAC National Art Conference Baltimore, MD 

Paper presentation: Eternal Return: Artmaking as an Invocation of Mythic Time

Panel: Mythogenesis: Making and Telling Stories in the Arts

Chairs: Kasie Alt, Assistant Professor of Art History, Georgia Southern University & Claudia Wilburn, Art & Design Department Chair, Brenau University

2021        

SECAC National Art Conference (conference canceled), Lexington, KY

Paper proposal accepted: Mythic Nature: Creating Outside of Structured Time

Panel: It’s About Time

Chair: Raymond Gaddy, Director Armstrong Gallery of Art and Assistant Professor of Art at Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA

2020        

SECAC National Art Conference, Richmond, VA

Paper presentation: Form and Gesture: Embodiment and the Performance of Painting

 Panel: The Figure Beyond a Constructed Ideal: Representing Contemporary Bodies and Identities in the Studio and the Classroom (virtual)

2019        

SECAC National Art Conference, Chattanooga, TN

Paper Presentation: Losing My Artistic Identity and Transforming the Self: Studio Practice as Alchemical Experience

Panel: Artist Research 101

Chair: Bryce Speed, Associate Professor of Art at University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL

VISITING ARTIST PRESENTATIONS, LECTURES, AND INTERVIEWS

2024

Artist Interview, Bulgrin, Kendra. “12 Questions: Lauren Woods.” James May Gallery Blog, September 6, 2024. 

Artist Interview, Jenkins, Amy. “Lauren Woods: Visions in Pink.” Arts Fell on Alabama Podcast, Montgomery, AL, April 8, 2024.

Visiting Artist Lecture, UVU Art & Design Lecture Series, Utah Valley University, Orem, UT, January 18, 2024

2023

Artist Interview, Bradfield, Elizabeth. “Monthly Q&A with Gibson Fay-Leblanc and Lauren Woods.” Broadsided Press, February 16, 2023. 

2022    

Artist Lecture, “Oracle and Odyssey,” Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL, September 23, 2022.

Artist Talk, “Axis Mundi,” with Sarah West, Ground Floor Contemporary, Birmingham, AL, September 16, 2022

Artist Interview, Tuesch, Matthew. “Interview with 2022 McClure-Scanlin Visual Artist Lauren Woods.” Dope With a Splash of Lime Podcast, Lillian E. Smith Center at Piedmont University, Demorest, GA, August 3, 2022.

Figure Drawing Workshop, Doane University Department of Visual Arts, Crete, NE, February 10, 2022

2021                 

Artist Talk (online), “Hierophanic Territories,” Ground Floor Contemporary, Birmingham, AL, October 16, 2021

Visiting Artist Lecture, “Dream State,” Pensacola State College, Pensacola, FL, August 26, 2021

Artist Interview, Moon, Troy. “Mobile Artist Lauren Woods, PSC Art Faculty Reception is Thursday.” The Pirate, Pensacola State College Digital Magazine. August 25, 2021.

Artist Panel Talk (online), “Of Fantastic Stories, Freaks and Feminism: Beyond Gender Myths in Art,” moderated by Kristen Myers, Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, NIU Art Museum, DeKalb, IL, February 25, 2021.

Artist Gallery Talk, “Mythic Nature,” Gadsden Museum of Art, Gadsden, AL, January 7, 2021.

2020              

Artist Interview, Blanken, Billy. “Instagram Live: Sheep Meadow Dance Theatre.” New York, NY, November 30, 2020.

Artist Interview, Jordan, Caleb. “Quarantine Artist Interview: Lauren Woods.” 90.7 WKGC The Morning Mix. October 19, 2020.

2019                   

Artist Talk, “Creation of Body Tides,” Resident Presentation at Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT, July 14, 2019.

Artist Talk “Journey into an Internal Space,” Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art, Auburn, AL, February 14, 2019.

2018        

Artist Talk, “Video Art in do it,” Artist talk along with artists Brendon Cooke and Adam R. Forrester about our work in the exhibition, the art of filmmaking, and the role of new media in performance art. Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, Alabama, May 31, 2018.

GALLERY REPRESENTATION  

2024                   Sophiella Gallery, Mobile, AL

2021- 2023        Ground Floor Contemporary, Birmingham, AL

 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY