YS Lauren

Lauren YS is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work is influenced by multiple stages of focus, both geographically and in practice. Carrying a B.A. in English and Fine Art from Stanford University, Lauren applies their dynamic bouts in academics, literature, illustration, comics and animation to their role in the urban art sphere as a queer Asian-American femme with a deep passion for visual storytelling. Their signature style of high-chroma design elements interwoven with dynamic portraiture creates lush, florid pictorial portals to worlds that are as just as they are visually captivating. Lauren’s work seeks to bring an element of the fantastical and narrative fluidity to the dignity of their characters’ person-hoods, with a specific passion for creating space for queer and BIPOC stories.

From large-scale murals to multi-layered works on canvas, Lauren’s work draws inspiration from queer worlds, gender-fluid identities, mythology, dreams, psychedelia, animation, cybernetic organisms, travel, nature, human dignity, metaphysical wonderings and their mixed Asian-American heritage. Lauren’s vision encapsulates the lifetime search for identity and self-hood, a love of local myth, and the pursuit of promoting anti-racism and just futures.