Community Clay Workshops with Lauren Shapiro

Image: Detail of a silicone mold with coral texture and unfired clay pressing. Courtesy of the artist.
Image: Detail of a silicone mold with coral texture and unfired clay pressing. Courtesy of the artist.

Social practice in the time of social-distance!

Why sit at home on a ZOOM call when you can be wrist-deep in clay?

Against all odds, Lauren Shapiro is attempting to build a participatory project during a pandemic. She devised a safe yet engaging way to get it done, and she needs YOU!

Future Pacific is an immersive, site-specific installation that will feature large-scale, unfired clay structures that resemble architectural ruins covered with coral reef textures.

Through a series of free hands-on, physically-distanced workshops at the Bakehouse, participants (no experience necessary) may contribute to the installation by pressing clay into the silicone molds and then applying the forms to foundational structures inside of the gallery space.

The workshops will take place throughout October on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:00 – 6:00pm, and on Saturdays, 10:00am – 5:00pm.

Masks and physical-distancing are required.
10 tickets available per workshop session. Plastic face shields and gloves will be provided.

Bring your clay game!

Click below to register for a community clay workshop session.

About the artist:

Lauren Shapiro is a visual artist living and working in Miami, Florida. She earned an MFA from the University of Miami and a BFA from Florida Atlantic University. She utilizes a multi-step casting process in clay resulting in modular sculptures and installations that reference systems and visual orders found in nature. Her work draws inspiration from environmental research and data, ceramics and social practice. In 2019, she was awarded the Wavemaker Grant through Locust Projects, funded in part by the Andy Warhol Foundation and a Knight Arts Challenge grant for a project that will culminate at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in 2020. Recently, she received a broader outreach grant from the National Science Foundation for an art project based on coral reef research.

This exhibition and accompanying public programming is made possible by the generous support from Thea, Jordyn, Jayde, Alexander, and Jonathan Mitzman, in honor of Robert Mitzman’s birthday and to celebrate his spirit of curiosity and imagination and the family’s interest in environmental protection advocacy.

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