Artist, curator, and writer Lauren Fensterstock joins the Dodd faculty this fall as our newest Lamar Dodd Professorial Chair. Fensterstock is known for creating elaborate sculptures and intricate installations she constructs with materials associated with women’s crafts, such as hand-cut paper and seashells, aiming to emphasize the capacity of these media to reflect the complexities of the world beyond the domestic sphere. While in residence at the Dodd during the 2018–19 year, Fensterstock will work on a new body of work that will be exhibited in the Dodd Galleries in spring 2019. This large sculptural work will explore the form of portals that at first appear like monumental black slabs but juxtapose the stark geometries of Modernism with detailed rococo patterning.

Fensterstock's graduate seminar this fall is entitled From the Invisible to the Infinite: Mapping Studio Practice in Context, and explores artistic production through a variety of lenses from the molecular, to the systematic, linguistic and global. Fensterstock relocates to Georgia from Portland, Maine with her partner, Aaron Stephan, an artist who works in large-scale sculpture. His latest project, a 70-foot long monumental sculpture titled Paths Woven, was recently installed at the International Arrivals facility at San Diego International Airport. 

Currently, Fensterstock has work on view at the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, PA. Their exhibition Natural Wonders: the Sublime in Contemporary Art includes Fensterstock's Kiku, shown above, and a catalog featuring an essay by upcoming Dodd visiting artist Mark Dion.

Fensterstock has held academic appointments at the Rhode Island School of Design, Virginia Commonwealth University and Maine College of Art, among others. She holds a BFA degree from the Parsons School of Design and an MFA from SUNY New Paltz. She has upcoming 2018 exhibitions at the Walton Arts Center, the Gibbes Museum, and the Brandywine Museum. Her work is represented by Claire Oliver Gallery in New York.