Lauren Jade Szabo: Be Like Water

Opening Reception:
* November 12, 3:00–5:00 pm

Exhibition Dates:
* November 12 – December 23

Be Like Water is a painting-centered interdisciplinary exhibition created by Lauren Jade Szabo, MarinMOCA’s 2022 Artist in Residence. The show focuses on underwater imagery that reflects our human connection to the natural world and man-made environment through the essential element of water.

Szabo chose to include this theme during her residency as a meditation on the transformative properties of water, focusing on subjects below the surface being centers of contemplation for healing, symbiosis, and mindfulness.

The title, Be Like Water, is derived from a concept articulated by many, most famously perhaps by Bruce Lee. In Lauren’s work, it also touches on the idea of radical acceptance and the ephemerality of all things.

The exhibition will include a new series of paintings and the single-channel video Of Water (2022) developed in collaboration with filmmakers Bryan and Vita Hewitt. Additional collaborations on the project include movement by Lauren Godla, poetry by Rhiannon Hewitt, and an original score by Valerio Belloni.

Taken together, the installation asks what we can learn from water. The work carries deeper explorative and collaborative inquiries about our relationship to the earth’s rivers and oceans, climate change, and our ever-shifting landscape.

Be Like Water Opening Reception
November 12, 3–5pm
Live Performance at 4pm
Featuring movement by Lauren Godla and vocals by Hannah Levy
Duration 5–10 minutes.

Lauren Jade Szabo is a Los Angeles-born artist who lives and works in the Bay Area. She graduated with a BFA in Illustration from California College of the Arts with distinction, and received an MFA Fellowship from San Francisco Art Institute for graduate study in Painting, completed in 2018. Her work has been exhibited in the Bay Area and internationally and is in private collections in Europe, South Africa, and the United States. Szabo received an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant to support Be Like Water.