Lauri Firstenberg

Lauri Firstenberg is a curator and producer based in Los Angeles. She founded LAXART, the leading independent nonprofit contemporary art space in Los Angeles in 2005 and served as the Founder, Executive Director and Chief Curator for over a decade. After moving LAXART from Culver City to Hollywood and having met all of the goals of the LAXART strategic plan, Firstenberg identified her successor and hired international curator Hamza Walker. Firstenberg produced over 500 exhibitions, films, publications and public art initiatives featuring the work of Mark Bradford, Zaha Hadid, Charles Gaines, Mary Weatherford, Isaac Julien, Alex Israel, Raymond Pettibon, Jennifer Guidi, Rick Lowe, Noah Davis, Glenn Kaino, Andrea Bowers, Tavares Strachan, Rodney McMillan, Sam Falls, Eamon Ore Giron, Mimi Lauter, Walead Beshty, Doug Aitken, Wade Guyton, Seth Price, Josue Thomas, Wyatt Kahn, Alex Israel, Emiljia Skarnultye, EJ Hill, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Ruben Ochoa, Rebecca Morris, Jonas Woods, Meg Cranston, Scoli Acosta, Sanya Kantarovsky, Lita Albuquerque, Seffa Klein, John Divola, Edgar Arceneaux, Judy Chicago, Peter Shire, Math Bass, Nicole Miller, Thomas Lawson, Mungo Thomson, Kerry Tribe, William Leavitt, Gronk, Dashiell Manley, Piero Golia.... Firstenberg curated the exhibition "I Thought California Would Be Different," the California Biennial of 2008 which spanned from Tijuana to San Francisco. She was the cofounder and co-curator of Made In LA the first Los Angeles Biennial, a collaboration of LAXART with the Hammer Museum. And she was the co-director with Glenn Phillips of the Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival, a collaboration with the Getty and LAXART. She was the co-curator of An Image Bank of Everyday Revolutionary Life, the Image Bank of David Alfaro Siqueiros at REDCAT and the curator of Isaac Julien True North, The Mak Center.
Firstenberg received her Ph.D. and M.A. from Harvard University in the History of Art and Architecture Department. She received her B.A. in Art History from the University of California at Berkeley. She taught art history at USC and SciARC.
Firstenberg was formerly the curator of Artists Space, New York, the Assistant Director and Chief Curator of the Mak Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House and was the Associate Curator of Okwui Enwezor's The Short Century: Liberation and Independence Movements in Africa which debuted at the Museum Villa Stuck, Munich and traveled to MOMA/PS1, MCA Chicago, Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin. She was the Assistant Curator to Okwui Enwezor on Documenta 11, Kassel Germany. She has carried on lessons of her mentor Okwui Enwezor regarding artistic freedom and independence throughout her career. Firstenberg has published internationally on contemporary including Parkett, Frieze, Camera Austria, Art Journal, Nka and exhibition catalogues worldwide including Wangechi Mutu, Julie Mehretu, William Pope L., Meshac Gaba, Ike Ude, Documenta, Short Century, Only Skin Deep, Made In LA, I Thought California Would Be Different....
Firstenberg is the founder of IF Innovation Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting artists in the realm of film. She was the founding curator of VIA Art Fund, an international foundation focused on granting in the world of contemporary art.
Firstenberg is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Vascular Birthmarks Foundation - the leading international nonprofit organization serving the Vascular birthmarks community launching their 30 year Sustainability Initiative.
Firstenberg is the mother of actress, singer and songwriter Edie Yvonne.
Category:Harvard University alumni
Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni
Category:Curators
Category:Producers