Studio: laurahalseybrown@gmail.com

Laura Halsey Brown
Born 1961, Washington DC
Lives and works on the Coast of WA
MFA, California Institute for the Arts  Valencia, CA 1990
BFA, George Washington University, Corcoran School of Art  Washington, DC 1987

Laura Halsey Brown received her MFA from California Institute of the Arts in 1990, before moving to New York City, where she focused on creating and curating moving-image works. During her residency with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, she had a studio in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. In response to that experience, she created a site-responsive installation at the New Museum that projected video footage filmed from her studio windows onto panes of glass matching the size of those windows, evoking the memory of the lost view from the 91st floor. After 9/11, she relocated to Rotterdam, where she received grants to develop interdisciplinary public art and social practice projects centered on local architecture and urban space. These projects invited communities to engage with and contribute to conversations about the built environment, giving the public a voice in shaping their relationship to place.

In 2007, she founded senseofplaceLAB in San Francisco to continue developing site-responsive and site-specific projects. Much of this work addressed issues of gentrification, using participatory art to amplify community voices and explore how people experience and define place. In 2017, she moved to rural Washington, and in 2020 she was diagnosed as autistic. This marked a significant shift in her practice, redirecting her focus from public space to the psychological experience of private space. Alongside her studio practice, she founded Art Well.studio, where she works as an arts counselor, empowering individuals to use creative practice to support mental wellness.

ARTIST STATEMENT
I combine art mediums and architectural forms to explore memories of places I lived. Place shapes who I am and how I interact with the world. I’m an Interdisciplinary artist working across art, architecture and the psychology of space. Combing collage, photography, sculpture, drawing and architectural forms, I explore memory and the layered terrain of the (un)conscious. My work focuses on visualizing psychological processing and the emotional residue that places leave behind.

RECENT PROJECT: the unconscious is a window, 2026
The works are quiet collisions between architectural specificity and emotional imperfection.

the unconscious is a window is an on-going project where I return to the homes and spaces I have inhabited, re-examining them through my newly understood neurodivergent perspective. The series is anchored by a phrase I wrote to articulate its conceptual framework:

the unconscious is a window.
the subconscious is shaped.
the conscious is architecture.

Each work begins with an architectural floor plan. Some are reconstructed from memory, such as the first piece based on my childhood home, and others are developed through research. Within these floor plans, I map stream-of-consciousness writing and drawing directly into the rooms, allowing specific spaces to hold fragments of memory, emotion, and lived experience.

Layers of wax are applied over the drawings, referencing Freud’s analogy of unconscious material emerging into consciousness. Through the translucent wax and vellum, portions of the writing remain visible, suggesting memories surfacing and receding. The use of found architectural materials is central to my practice.Windows function as both literal architectural elements and metaphors for perception, memory, and psychological access. I also incorporate cyanotype using photographs I made while living in each location. Blue is the only color I use; it represents emotional regulation—the state I need to inhabit in order to create these works.

My processes of layering, obscuring, and revealing become acts of psychological re-evaluation. By revisiting the architecture that holds my formative memories, I seek not only to understand the places that shaped me, but to transform my relationship to them and move forward.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2022 Sou’wester Arts Week Seaview, WA  video shown on bus + collaborative art piece with students
2021 Sou’wester Arts Week Seaview, WA site-responsive installation
2020 Center for Contemporary Art Seattle, WA. 2020 Vision exhibition. Curated by Nicole DeMent
2018  Adobe Books Gallery, San Francisco, CA Back Catalog: solo exhibition
2012 Artopia, San Francisco, CA – One of 10 Finalists for Masterminds Grant
2011 Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA SNAP! Exhibition juried by Sandra S. Phillips, Senior Curator
of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Drew Johnson, Curator of
Photography at the Oakland Museum of California. Won a Jurors Award.
2011 New York State Museum Albany, NY Before the Fall
2007 Architectuur Film Festival Rotterdam the Netherlands
2007-2006 PARANOIA exhibition traveled to the following spaces:
Freud Museum London, UK; Swiss Cottage Central Library London, UK; Leeds City Art Gallery Leeds, UK; Focal Point Gallery Southend, UK
2005 crISIS ISIS Arts Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2004 Biennial Bucharest Identities and Visual Codes:Violence of Images Bucharest, Romania watching
Exit Art, NYC TerrorVision exhibition; watching
2003 TENT. Rotterdam, The Netherlands beingthere.v01.squat.03 [net.art aspect]
2002 Cara Foundation Miami, Florida Parallel Zone
Santa Fe Art Institute Santa Fe, New Mexico
2001 The New Museum, NYC World Views Open Studios
2000 Arthouse Dublin, Ireland Freeze II exhibition: video projection; timeframe
57 Hope Gallery Brooklyn, NY Elsewhere exhibition:photo/audio; of moving (still) v..2
1999 Catalyst Arts Belfast, Ireland Two person exhibition: L. Halsey Brown and Jean West
TZ’Art/Fredericke Taylor Gallery NYC Het Observatorium project: postcard piece
White Columns NYC Outer Boroughs exhibition: video; excerpt
1998 The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art Boulder, CO Fertile Waste: video installation
Fortress of Art Krakow, Poland Letter, Word, Sentence exhibition: site-specific drawings
Anthology Film Archives Courthouse Gallery NYC Act Like a Man exhibition
1997 Clementine Gallery Chelsea-NYC Fragments in Time exhibition: site-specific installation
57 Hope Gallery Brooklyn, NY Traces exhibition: site-specific wall installation
Snug Harbor Cultural Center Staten Island, NY participant in The Observatorium project
Art in General NYC writings, slides and video exhibited as part of The Observatorium
1994 New Museum  NYC a forest of forgotten words in ‘Courage’
video program curated by David Leslie as part of ‘Visiting Hours’; an installation by Bob Flanagan

SELECTED SCREENINGS
2006 One Minutes Festival Amsterdam, NL
2005 Video Dictionary Video Art Foundation
2004 International Film Festival Rotterdam Rotterdam, the Netherlands watching in Homefront USA
2003 Next 5 Minutes International Festival of Tactical Media Library Amsterdam, the Netherlands
2002 Artist Space New York, NY of moving time as part of Take Me From Nowhere to Nowhere
TENT. Rotterdam, the Netherlands watching [test screening for final edit] and general description
2001 P.S. 1/Clocktower Gallery, NYC Lecture Lounge
Medi@terra_01 Festival~Fournos Centre for Art & New Tech Greece of moving time
http://www.mikromuseum.org/beta/submissions/videoArchive/index.htm
White Box Gallery, NYC The Scene of the Crime>Sally Gurtierrez
2000 Greenwich Film Festival/APT Gallery, London, UK of moving time, going someplace…
291 Gallery, London UK Church of the Living Cinema; of moving time
Darklight Digital Film Festival Dublin, Ireland of moving time, going someplace….
The College Art Gallery of New Jersey Black Box Video Shorts(+)exhibition
Digital Video Wall at Rockerfeller Center NYC excerpt
1999 The Kitchen NYC tv is a window included in Television Delivers Us (to ourselves) screening
Catalyst Arts Belfast, N. Ireland January: a forest of forgotten words
The Knitting Factory NYC tv is a window and excerpt included in audio/visual screening

COLLECTIONS
2005 Video Art Foundation videoDictionary
2004 Rhizome.org ArtBase LIVE!NUDE!SPACE! and [excerpts from current English] net.art works
2003 Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Library Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Video Lounge + [excerpts from current English]
1996 Pierogi 2000 Flat Files Brooklyn, NY-http://wwwpierogi2000.com/flatfile/brownlha.html
Speaking in Public: site-specific drawing series. travels nationally and internationally

CATALOGS
2006 crISIS Published by ISIS Arts Newcastle, UK ISBN: ISBN: 978-0-9554317-0-8
PARANOIA edited by Paul Ryan Published by Paranoia Publishing ISBN: 0955330904
2004 Site Matters: The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s World Trade Center Artists Residency,
1997-2001 Distributed Art Publishers, New York ISBN: 0-9726973-1-4
The Violence of the Image, the Image of Violence
Published by META Cultural Center Romania ISBN: 973-86344-2-3
2002 Pilotprojekt Gropiusstadt 2002, Published by Pilotprojekt Gropiusstadt, Berlin, Germany
Parallel Zone Published by Cara Foundation Miami, Florida
Evidencing: Drawing with Light and Pixels Published by TCNJ College Art Gallery
2001 Medi@terra_01 Festival Published by Fournos Centre for Art & New Tech Greece
2000 Freeze II curated by Anya von Goesseln Published by Arthouse Dublin, Ireland
Feature Presentation: Black Box Video Shorts (+) Published by TCNJ College Art Gallery

GRANTS
2011 Creative Capacity Grant Creative Capacity Fund
2005 PROJECT Talking Artist Award Newcastle, UK for beingthere.v3.newcastle.06
Stimurlingsfonds voor Architectuur Rotterdam, the Netherlands for beingthere.v2.r’dam.05
CBK/BKOR Rotterdam grant for beingthere.v2.r’dam.03
2004 CBK/BKOR Rotterdam presentation grant for beingthere.v2.r’dam.05
ISIS Arts Newcastle upon Tyne, UK New Media Commission for welkom 2 r’dam
Department of Cultural Affairs Charleston, South Carolina Low Country Quarterly Arts Grant
2002 CBK Rotterdam, the Netherlands ProjectSubsidie for beingthere.v1.squat.03
2000 GUNK Foundation NY Public Art Project Grant for a Places We Are project
Artist Space NYC Independent Project Grant for a Places We Are project

SELECTED MEDIA CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2004-2005 66 East Centre for Urban Culture Amsterdam the Netherlands online curatorial projects
2003 Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Library Collection Rotterdam, the Netherland
Video Lounge+[excerpts from current English]
Taking Possession of Space-a transient exhibition, as part of beingthere.v01.squat.03
REJECT Festival Rotterdam, The Netherlands Act Like a Man and Describing Place
2002 Piet Zwart Institute Rotterdam, the Netherlands (on site aspect: 9 video programs)
here+there: online+ on site projects http://www.movinginplace.net/here+there.html
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA
<stepping back/moving forward>Human Interaction in an Interactive Age
(co-curated with William Stover)
TENT Rotterdam, the Netherlands watching-and-seeing
2001 A/V.2– a series of video events with audio by the DJ’s Minimalia
The New Museum , NYC;
Paul McCarthy in dialogue with Cheryl Donegan
2000 The Center for Photography at Woodstock Woodstock, NY;
media(tion); acceleration and fragmentation
1999 The Kitchen NYC Television Delivers Us (to ourselves)
The Avignon Film Festival NYC the pixeled narrative
Brooklyn Community Access Television Brooklyn, NY
Caught on Videotape… A 13 week program on cable
1998 MIX Festival at Anthology Film Archives NYC Act Like a Man
Knitting Factory Video Lounge and 57 Hope Gallery NY
Five part series; notes on moving images
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art Boulder, CO Transformation
The Video Room Video Festival at Galapagos Williamsburgh- Brooklyn, NY
1997 Art in General NYC Moving Time

RESIDENCIES
2004 ISIS Arts Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2002 Pilotprojekt Gropiusstadt, Berlin, Germany
Stichting Duende Aktiviteiten Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2001 LMCC Residency/Artist-in-Residence,World Trade Center, NYC
Santa Fe Art Institute Santa Fe, NM
2000 Cushendall Tower Cushendall, N. Ireland
FlaxArt Studios Belfast, N. Ireland
1998 Anderson Ranch Arts Center Aspen, Colorado

REVIEWS
2012 Jonathan Curiel, Masterminds 2012: Honoring 10 Extraordinary Bay Area artists, SF Weekly
http://www.sfweekly.com/2012-02-08/culture/masterminds-art-bay-area-painting-dance-photography-music/
2005 Marina Vishmidt, Crisis or Opportunity, Net Art News rhizome.org
2004 Grace Glueck,Sampling Degrees of Terror;TERRORVISION The New York Times
Ariella Budick Visualizing Fear Newsday
Jane Harris Getting Personal, Political, an Very Idiosyncratic at Exit Art Village Voice
Max Gross Living La Vida Terror Forward
2002 Stephanie Cash, Studios in the Sky Art in America
Martha Schwendener, Urban Renewal Time Out New York
2001 Karen Rosenberg, Lost and Found The Village Voice
Holland Cotter, The Studios Were Lost, But the Artists HaveTheir Day The New York Times
Ellison Walcott LMCC presents…Downtown Express
2000 Holland Cotter A Showcase for Emerging Talent The New York Times
Aidan Dunne Has Video Killed the Visual Arts? The Irish Times
Janel Purcell TCNJ Video Exhibition is a Moving Experience The New Jersey Times
1999 Jonathan Jones On View Belfast Guardian
Kenneth Johnson, Het Observatorium The New York Times
NY Arts Magazine, Centerfold Project for Het Observatorium
1998 Munroe Galloway, Zing Magazine Winter
Alfredo De La Rosa, Fertile Waste Colorado Daily
1997 Roberta Smith, To See, and Spend the Night In, The New York Times
Bill Arning, Current Undercurrent: Working in Brooklyn, The Village Voice
1996 Kim Levin, Crest Hardware Show, The Village Voice 

PRESENTATIONS/INTERVIEWS
2007 Presentation @ Interface: Virtual Environments in Art, Design and Education Conference
Dublin Institute of Technology. Presentation titled: “Teaching Contemporary Art and Media Theory in an Online Environment”
2005 Megastad FM 93.9 Rotterdam interview regarding beingthere.v2.r’dam. 05
2004 SPARK! Design and Locality Conference Oslo, Finland invited to present LIVE!NUDE!SPACE!
2000 BBC Radio Northern Ireland radio interview regarding after a few drinks in Belfast
1999 BBC Television Northern Ireland television interview regarding exhibition at Catalyst Arts

ONLINE EXHIBITIONS AND DIGITAL FESTIVALS
2004 SPARK! Design and Locality Conference Oslo School of Architecture Oslo, Finland
Coded Cultures:Decoding Digital Culture Freiraum, MuseumsQuartier Vienna, Austria
Inter’l Media Art Festival:Public_Media_Space Armenian Center Experimental Art, Armenia
[R][R][F] 2004 —>XP as part of the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth, Australia
2003 ORB // remote Royal Gardens Copenhagen, Denmark
TENT. in conjunction with the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam  the Netherlands
2002 Not TV London, UK Being There
2001 Irish Museum of Modern Art Dublin, Ireland Open Museum
Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts Tokyo, Japan
Watershed Media Centre, UK Net_Working Organized by Dew Harrison