Lauren dela Roche exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis

For the 2026 Great Rivers Biennial, artists Vaughn Davis Jr., Lauren dela Roche, and Vincent Stemmler have proposed ambitious exhibitions that involve a range of media including sculpture, painting, installation, and multimedia assemblage. The three award winners were unanimously selected by a distinguished panel of independent jurors: Leslie Hewitt, artist and Associate Professor of Art at Rice University in Houston; Margot Norton, Chief Curator at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley; and Pavel Pyś, Curator of Visual Arts and Collections Strategy at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. The jurors made the selection after visiting the studios of ten semifinalist artists who were chosen from a pool of 93 applicants. 

In many of Lauren dela Roche’s recent large-scale paintings, female figures lounge together in highly stylized architectural spaces animated by dynamic patterns and color. The vintage feed sacks she quilts together and paints on are full of patinas of use. Dela Roche incorporates these holes, logos, patches, and mends into her compositions, creating depth, and suggesting renewal. This exhibition sees dela Roche experimenting with new forms and mediums. In one new series, linear drawings of figures appear alongside cutout tissue paper shapes, pressed leaves and flowers, and treasured collage elements collected by the artist that she sandwiches between layers of encaustic wax; their rippling surfaces suggest layers of history accumulating or peeling away. Alongside these paintings, dela Roche debuts new figurative sculptures in cast bronze, presented alongside sculptures fabricated from vintage dollhouses.

Great Rivers Biennial 2026 is organized for the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis by Dean Daderko, Ferring Foundation Chief Curator, and Misa Jeffereis, Associate Curator, with support from Grace Early, Exhibitions Assistant.