Lauren Halsey to Funk up Serpentine Galleries in London

Lauren Halsey b. 1987, United States Follow +

Lauren Halsey’s first exhibition in the U.K. will transform Serpentine Galleries in London into an ‘immersive funk garden’.

Running from 4 October 2024 to 2 March 2025, the exhibition, emajendat, aims to recreate the backyard culture of Halsey’s gentrifying home in South Central L.A., where her family has lived for generations.

‘I collect objects—including posters, mix CDs, and figurines—from a place of love and pride of this neighbourhood because I can assume, within the next ten, or maybe even five years ... all these people will be gone too,’ the artist told Ocula Magazine.

An architect by training, Halsey conceives spatial installations that incorporate Afrofuturist and mythological references to envision new possibilities for Black urban communities.

At Serpentine South, figurines Halsey collected from local swap meets and donations are enlarged to life-size. Technicolour sand dunes nod to the funk genre, while discarded CDs form a mirrored installation on the wall.

‘This commission is one of the artist’s most ambitious installations to date,’ said Bettina Korek, CEO of Serpentine Galleries, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, in a co-released statement.

Halsey’s project at Serpentine follows her commission for Metropolitan Museum of Art‘s rooftop in New York in 2023.

Referencing the longevity of ancient Egyptian architecture, a six-metre-tall temple was surrounded by four columns and sphinxes bearing the faces of family members. On the structure’s surface, local idioms, street signs, and phrases such as ‘solidarity’ were engraved, memorialising the artist’s vanishing neighbourhood.

Last October, Halsey joined mega-gallery Gagosian, which co-represent the artist along with David Kordansky. Her non-profit, Summaeverythang, will open a community centre in South Central in 2026. —[O]

Main image: Lauren Halsey, land of the sunshine wherever we go II (2021) (detail). © Lauren Halsey.