Cultural Council Sets Solo Exhibit

(PRESS RELEASE)_September 25, 2023 (Lake Worth Beach, Fla.) -- A collection of profound photographic work about love, anger and the struggles experienced by generations of women will soon be on display in a striking art exhibition in downtown Lake Worth Beach.

The exhibition Lauren Bertelson: Like Mother, Like Daughter will take place October 6 through December 2 at the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County’s Solo Gallery at its Lake Worth Beach headquarters. Free and open to the public, exhibition hours during October are Tuesday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m., as well as Saturday, October 14 from noon to 5 p.m. In November and December, exhibition hours are Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5 p.m.

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Bertelson’s mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother have left literal and metaphorical scars in her family archive. Their photos document their struggles in wanting to be seen and appreciated for the intensive domestic labor they participated in while also displaying palpable trauma from rejection and dismissal of their accomplishments. Bertelson’s work emerges from their desires to both create and destroy, combining self-portraiture with a variety of domestic crafts to create a feminist body of work that simultaneously recognizes her matrilineage and elevates domestic work to contemporary art. Her practice is about love and anger and the transfer of these sentiments through generations of women.

“Lauren’s exhibition is particularly focused on family histories, the experiences of women in her family, and their responses to their roles as women and in the family,” said Jessica Ransom, the council’s director of artist services and the exhibition’s curator. “I love the way she incorporates found objects that are often associated with female roles into her work.”

Selected through a highly competitive application process, Bertelson is one of six Palm Beach County-based professional artists whose work was chosen by a committee for one of the Council’s coveted Solo Gallery exhibition spots. All the artists chosen this year are women, Ransom said.

“In addition to all of the Solo Gallery artists being women, all of their work responds in some respect to the fact that women artists have been systematically overlooked and minimized throughout recorded art history,” she said. “Despite this, women artists have helped shaped every era and art movement and have persevered against bias with unique perspectives and use of mediums. This group of artists continues to record their lives and experiences and make art that uniquely represents them.”

Currently based in Palm Beach Gardens, Bertelson is a photographer originally from Boulder, Colorado, who uses photography and domestic craft to explore themes of domesticity, femininity, labor, and the multigenerational transfer of these concepts.

“This work is deeply personal for me, but it can also be interpreted more broadly,” she said. “I hope that it touches people and illuminates some of the many roles and emotions seen in their own families.”

Her work has previously been featured at Light Work, Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Studio 1608, the Biblio Gallery and the Schine Student Center at Syracuse University. Bertelson was a recipient of a SOURCE Grant in Spring 2022 to pursue Like Mother, Like Daughter. With a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Photography from Syracuse University, past projects include a crochet tapestry, Eighty Seasons: A Summary, that visually represents the relationships that have been an integral part of her life, as well as a series of images As the Shadows Lengthen, that explored an 8-month bout with chronic insomnia.

Lauren Bertelson: Like Mother, Like Daughter will run from October 6 through December 2 at the Cultural Council’s headquarters in Lake Worth Beach. Exhibition hours during October are Tuesday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m., as well as Saturday, October 14 from noon to 5 p.m. In November and December, exhibition hours are Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. Visit www.palmbeachculture.com/council-events/ for more information or to register for the opening artist reception on Thursday, October 5, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
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