Lauren Halsey Is Building an Ode to South Central Los Angeles

This story is part of our annual look at the state of American design. This year, we’re highlighting work that shines through an acrimonious moment—and makes the case for optimism.

Growing up in South Central Los Angeles, Lauren Halsey built sets for church plays, an early passion that has evolved into a celebrated art practice. "I had an appreciation for sculpture," says Halsey. "I remember pretty profoundly that carving things was moving for me." Her large-scale, site-specific installations mix ancient Egyptian forms and other architectural motifs with contemporary Black iconography to evoke striking spatial narratives. The work explores the potential of sculpture and architecture, blending fantasy with reality, the mundane with the spiritual, and archival images with visions of the future. The result is often a funky Afrofuturist approach to monument making.

Halsey’s work has appeared at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Venice Biennale, and, currently, the Serpentine Gallery in London, but next spring, she returns to her neighborhood for the opening of a very personal project: a public sculpture park titled "sister dreamer, lauren halsey’s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles." Sister dreamer will feature eight sphinxes and Hathoric columns carved with portraits of community organizers and Halsey’s heroes, as well as a reflecting pool and a chamber with an oculus. The park will also offer public programming—including jazz nights, yoga classes, film screenings, and art conversations—organized by the Summaeverythang Community Center, Halsey’s nonprofit. Founded in 2020, the organization gives out boxes of produce to families across South Central. The installation will close in fall 2026, but Summaeverythang will move nearby to a permanent home designed by Barbara Bestor.

Though it builds on Halsey’s previous work, sister dreamer is "completely different," she says. "It’s ours. It’s not tethered to an institution or something larger than itself." She goes on: "We create what we want. It’s a pathway to freedom." As she was about to open her first solo exhibition in the U.K., Dwell spoke with Halsey about the importance of having Black spaces in America, whom she creates her art for, and how community is the foundation of her practice.

How has South Central inspired you, and what do you hope the Summaeverythang Community Center will bring to the neighborhood where your family has lived for generations?

South Central is more complex than the stereotypes some cinema and literature have assigned to its communities. What I haven’t seen on display, or on the level of Hollywood, is the brilliant activist context and spirit that have been present here my whole life, which I think I’ve inherited. Like, regular service work growing up in the Black church, going to a park and seeing matriarchs in the community care for people. I couldn’t imagine, whether I was a teacher or sculptor, not wanting to provide resources that are for us. I hope Summaeverythang—which is in its infant stages—can be an all-encompassing, maximalist resource for use in the neighborhood. We’re going to beta test the programming that we’ll be doing at the permanent Summaeverythang Community Center; it’s living architecture.

What will be at sister dreamer?

It’s not only sculpture. It’s a park that’s botanically rich. There will be water features, really tall palm trees, and landscape designer Phil Davis got into the nitty-gritty of seedlings found around the neighborhood. We will see the wildflowers local to the zip code 90047, as well as citrus, guava, and pomegranate.

"We’ll offer some of everything, from discourse to resources to joy to being a safe zone. And shape-shifting to whatever the needs of youth are."

—Lauren Halsey

But it has the same themes as my earlier work: local heroes, landmarks, our aesthetic styles, and signage, but just articulated differently. When the sun moves and the oculus creates light and shade, the exterior will be lit differently and way more dramatic because it will have the shadows of the walls.