For over a decade, Lauren Halsey (b. 1987, Los Angeles) has forged a visual language as vivid and layered as the South Central streets where her family has lived for generations. Her work is a kaleidoscopic archive of her neighborhood’s shifting signs and symbols, blending the tactile and the graphic into installations that pulse with life. Halsey’s art merges past, present, and an imagined future, drawing on the iconography of the African diaspora, Black and queer culture, and architectural histories. She cites the layered rhythms of funk music as a guiding principle, crafting works that echo with temporal fluidity and a deep embrace of multiplicity.

With emajendat, her first solo exhibition in the UK, Halsey transforms Serpentine South Gallery into a psychedelic ‘Funk garden.’ This immersive environment extends Kensington Gardens into the gallery, presenting a shimmering, prismatic world oscillating between the cosmic and the grounded. A life-size vignette—a scaled-up version of her intricate miniatures—dominates the space. The installation features walls and floors lined with CDs, a live water fountain, surreal figurines, and her signature “funkmounds,” sculptural forms that suggest mythical terrain. Sand dunes, bespoke wallpaper, and Halsey’s debut moving image work add further layers to this hybrid landscape.

Halsey’s work is as much about celebration as it is about resistance. Through Summaeverythang, a community center she established in 2019, she channels the energy of her art into direct action, creating spaces for empowerment in South Central. Her exhibitions are blueprints for her larger vision: a permanent sculpture park in her neighborhood. In emajendat, she invites us to revel in the vitality of South Central while challenging us to consider the forces of gentrification threatening its soul. Halsey’s work doesn’t just reflect a community—it animates it, amplifying its past and projecting its infinite possibilities forward.