LUCY RAVEN

Early Life and Background

Lucy Raven grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and completed a BFA in Studio Art and a BA in Art History at the University of Arizona, Tucson, in 2000. She studied at Escola Massana in Barcelona before earning her MFA from Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts in 2008. Based in New York City, Raven is an associate professor at The Cooper Union School of Art.

Lucy Raven Artworks

Lucy Raven’s practice is rooted in experimental approaches to film, photography, and installation, exploring hidden labour, material transformation, and the ideologies embedded in visual culture. Her work often visualises the unseen processes underpinning contemporary industry and infrastructure, with a focus on the American West.

Seminal Works and Developments

• In China Town (2009), Raven charts the global production chain of copper wire, tracing its journey from a Nevada mine to a processing facility in China through a 7,000-frame stop-motion animation.
• Curtains (2014) investigates the conversion of Hollywood films from 2D to 3D, revealing the distributed labour across global post-production studios.
• The ongoing project The Drumfire includes installations such as Murderers Bar (2025), a moving image installation and sculptural ensemble focusing on the removal of a dam on the Klamath River and broader themes of environmental transformation and activism.
• Raven is a founding member of the moving-image collective 13BC (also referenced as Thirteen Black Cats).

Select Public Commissions

In 2025, Lucy Raven presented a major institutional solo exhibition in London at the Barbican Centre. The exhibition, titled Rounds, shown in The Curve gallery from 9 October 2025 to 4 January 2026, over the period of Frieze London features the UK premiere of her moving-image installation Murderers Bar, as well as a monumental new kinetic sculpture called Centrifuge, co-commissioned with ICA Boston. This exhibition was highlighted as a significant highlight of the London institutional art calendar for 2025.

Select Awards and Accolades

Raven has participated in major biennials, including the Whitney Biennial (2012, 2022), and Gwangju Biennale in 2024.

Collections

Lucy Raven’s works are held in major international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Tate Britain, London; Dia Art Foundation, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Whitney Museum of American Art.

Lucy Raven Exhibitions

Select Solo Exhibitions

• 2025: Murderers Bar, Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada
• 2025–26: Rounds, Barbican Centre, London; ICA Boston, USA
• 2024: Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany
• 2023–24: Remai Modern, Canada
• 2022: Wiels, Brussels, Belgium
• 2021: Dia Chelsea, New York, USA
• 2016–17: Serpentine Galleries, London, UK
• 2014: Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany
• 2012: Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA
• 2010: Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, USA

Select Group Exhibitions

• 2024: Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, USA; Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, New York, USA
• 2022: Whitney Biennial, New York, USA
• 2018–19: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA
• 2013: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
• 2016: Montreal Biennial, Canada
• 2010: Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus, USA
• 2008–09: Mass MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts, USA

To be kept up to date with news relating to Lucy Raven, follow her on Ocula.

More Reading

Raven’s practice has been profiled by platforms such as Ocula, Art21, and leading art publications. You can read more about Lucy Raven and her latest projects on Ocula.

Lucy Raven FAQs

Ocula | 2025