Lauren Moses (b. 1985 in Charleston, West Virginia) creates dense visual narratives often allegorical in nature and steeped in art history that engage contemporary social issues through themes of vulnerability, voyeurism, theatricality, posturing, and performance. Painting and materiality are as much a subject in her work as the fragmented narratives embodied. Often she creates sweeping scenes comprised of disjointed vignettes that play out seemingly unaware of the others’ existence. Often there are onlookers. Other times, she creates intimate, symbolic spaces of isolation, stagnation and exposure. Rendered in various states of verisimilitude, her figures’ emotions are frequently indeterminate. Combining her experience as an old time fiddler and singer with her keen interest in the complicated intersection of memory and history, Moses frequently adapts traditional ballads, folksongs, stories, and poems.
Situated between Northern Renaissance painting, Impressionist landscape, psychological autobiography, Southern Gothic, wry absurdity, and magical realism, Moses selectively filters and conflates stories from our collective consciousness in an attempt to understand our present.
Lauren Moses received a BA in History from The University of Virginia and a BFA in Painting & Printmaking with a minor in Art History from Virginia Commonwealth University. Moses' work has been displayed at Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Nicolet College in Rhinelander, WI, Healdsburg Center for the Arts in Healdsburg, CA, Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville, VA, McGuffey Art Center in Charlottesville, VA, The FAB Gallery in Richmond, VA, Anderson Ranch in Snowmass, CO, and Mountain Lake Biological Research Station, University of Virginia in Pembroke, VA.
Moses' work is included in personal and corporate collections across the country including Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., New York, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Florida.
Moses currently lives and works in Charlottesville, Virginia.