Born in 1984

Hollywood, FL

Lauren Pascarella was born in Hollywood, FL in 1984.  She studied at New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida from 2003 to 2007, majoring in Photography.  After completing her BFA, she relocated to New York City.  There, she completed her MFA in Photography from Parsons, The New School.  She has shown her work in various group shows in both Miami and New York City since 2006 and in 2014 had her first solo exhibition at the MDC Museum of Art + Design in Miami. She is currently working in cross-disciplinary genres, including New Media and digital photographic installations. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. 

In a culture overwhelmed by visual stimuli, we often mistake representations for reality. A building, for example, is perceived as a mere façade—its inner structure and purpose, though conceptually (and actually) we acknowledge that within it lies an entirely other place, even without interacting with it. Similarly, a photograph is more than an image; it is a physical object, yet we are conditioned to look past its materiality in search of meaning.

This disconnect extends to how we perceive ourselves and others—our experiences are filtered through symbols that stand in for deeper, intangible truths. My work explores this gap between signifier and signified through a process of visual recontextualization. I photograph objects, print the images, manipulate them physically, and then re-photograph the results. This iterative process challenges the viewer to question perception, urging them to look beyond the surface and reconsider what they accept as real.