Carolyn Lieba Francois Lazard (born 1987) is an American artist based in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Pennsylvania. Lazard uses the experience of

chronic illness A chronic condition (also known as chronic disease or chronic illness) is a health condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects or a disease that comes with time. The term ''chronic'' is often applied when the ...

to examine concepts of intimacy and the labor of living involved with chronic illnesses. Lazard expresses their ideas through a variety of mediums including performance, filmmaking, sculpture, writing, photography, sound; as well as environments and installations. Lazard is a 2019

Pew Foundation The Pew Charitable Trusts is an independent non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO), founded in 1948. Pew's stated mission is to serve the public interest by "improving public policy, informing the public, and invigorating civic life". ...

Fellow and one of the first recipients of The Ford Foundation's 2020 Disability Futures Fellows Awards. In 2023, Lazard was selected as a recipient of the

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

, colloquially known as the "genius grant."

Early life and education

Carolyn Lieba Francois Lazard was born in 1987 in

Upland Upland or Uplands may refer to: Geography *Hill, an area of higher land, generally *Highland, an area of higher land divided into low and high points *Upland and lowland, conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level *I ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Lazard graduated with a B.A. degree in 2010 from

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...

. They earned their MFA degree in 2019 from the University of Pennsylvania.

Art career

Lazard's work has been exhibited internationally including at the

Kunsthal Aarhus Kunsthal Aarhus is a contemporary arts centre located in the city of Aarhus in Denmark. History Kunsthal Aarhus was established in 1917 on the initiative of Aarhus Art Association of 1847, and it remains the only arts centre in Aarhus and one o ...

, Denmark;

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

, Amsterdam; and The Camden Art Centre, London. Nationally, they have exhibited at the

Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia The Institute of Contemporary Art or ICA is a contemporary art museum in Philadelphia. The museum is associated with the University of Pennsylvania, and is located on its campus. The Institute is one of the country's leading museums dedicated t ...

;

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...

, Minneapolis;

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum at 235 Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-nam ...

, New York; and had screenings at the

Anthology Film Archives Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the film preservation, preservation, film studies, study, and film distribution, exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent film, independent, experimental film, ex ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. Lazard was included in the 2019

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932; the first biennial was held in 1973. It is considered ...

, curated by

Rujeko Hockley Rujeko Hockley is a New York–based US curator. Hockley is currently the Arnhold Associate Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Life and education Born in Harare, Zimbabwe, Hockley relocated to Wa ...

and

Jane Panetta Jane Panetta is a New York City, New York-based curator and art historian. Panetta is currently an associate curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Career Curating Before working at the Whitney, Panetta spent five years in the Painting and ...

. Lazard was a participant alongside 75 other artists. Lazard's published works include a 2019 work commissioned by Recess titled ''Accessibility in the Arts: A Promise and a Practice'' and ''The World is Unknown,'' published by Triple Canopy as a part of their Immaterial Literature project area. In 2019, Lazard co-organized the ''I Wanna Be With You Everywhere'' festival celebrating disability arts in New York City. One of Lazard's works, ''Support System (For Park, Tina, and Bob),'' 2016, was featured on the cover of Art Papers' winter 2018/2019 edition. The work documents a 12-hour performance completed by the artist where they spent the day in bed. For the 2017 New Museum exhibition "Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon" Lazard installed ''A Conspiracy'' (2017), 12 white-noise machines (the sort used in therapists' offices) installed in one of the elevators. Their installation from the 2019

is titled “Extended Stay”. For this installation, Lazard attached a TV on a hospital mount that extended from the wall. The TV was connected to a cable set to change channels every 30 seconds. The goal of this work was to connect regular museum goers to people with chronic illness and create a shared experience between the two. There is also a connection to the pandemic. The installation brings to light a sense of boredom that people with chronic illness have experienced their entire life that many other only began to experience during the pandemic.

Canaries collective

Alongside their studio practice they are a co-founder of Canaries, with Jesse Cohen and Bonnie Swencionis. Canaries is a network of cis women, trans people, and non-binary people living and working with autoimmune conditions and other chronic illnesses to create work. The members are artists, painters, actors, and writers who all experience bodily phenomena outside the frame of biomedical discourse. The group, originally based in New York City, has taken the form of a

listserve A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. Mailing lists are often rented or sold. If rented, the renter agrees to use the mailing list only at contra ...

, an art collective, and a support group with regular meetings. As a collective they have exhibited at Recess, New York; Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York; and Franklin Street Works, Connecticut.

Artistic practice

In March 2017, Lazard co-signed an open letter written by

Hannah Black Hannah Black is a British visual artist, critic, and writer. Her work spans video, text and performance. Early life Black was born in 1981 in Manchester, England. She is currently based in New York City, though she has previously been based in ...

demanding the

remove the

Open Casket A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...

painting by

Dana Schutz Dana Schutz (born 1976 in Livonia, Michigan) is an American artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Schutz is known for her gestural, figurative paintings that often take on specific subjects or narrative situations as a point of depa ...

. In 2021, the Pew Center for Arts asked Lazard to cite a queer work that shaped their practice, Lazard named Artist

Panteha Abareshi Panteha Abareshi (; born 1999) is a Canadian-born American multidisciplinary artist and curator, primarily working within installation art, video art, and performance art. They are of Jamaican and Iranian descent, and their work is about chronic ...

's video work, ''For Medical Use Only'' (2019).

Exhibitions

*2016 –

, New York City *2017 – ''Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon,''

, New York City *2018 – ''Crip Time'',

, Amsterdam, NL *2018 – ''Post Institutional Stress Disorder 2,''

, Germany *2018 – ''A Recipe for Disaster,'' Camden Art Centre, London, UK *2018 –

the Kitchen A kitchen is a room used for the preparation of food. Kitchen, or The Kitchen, may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Films * ''Kitchen'' (1966 film), an American film * ''Kitchen'' (1997 film), a Hong Kong film * ''The Kitchen'' (1961 film ...

, New York City *2018 – ''epigenetic,'' Shoot the Lobster, New York City *2018 – Essex Street Gallery, New York City *2019 – Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN *2020 – ''SYNC,'' Essex Street Gallery, New York City *2022 – Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN

References

External links

Carolyn Lazard – Contemporary Art DailyArtist's Website

Canaries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lazard, Carolyn 1987 births Living people 21st-century American artists American artists with disabilities People with Crohn's disease People with ankylosing spondylitis Bard College alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni 21st-century American sculptors Filmmakers from Pennsylvania 21st-century American women painters 21st-century American painters MacArthur Fellows