Lawrence Carroll - American (1954-2019)

Born 1954 in Melbourne to Australian-Irish parents, Lawrence Carroll emigrated to California with family in 1958. He grew up in the Golden State and graduated from the Art Center College of Design – which he attended on full scholarship – in Pasadena during the 1970s. He would later move to Los Angeles, and ultimately New York, where he not only had his first solo exhibition at Stux Gallery in 1988, but was also invited by Harald Szeemann to the 1989 exhibition Einleuchten in the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, appearing alongside Joseph Beuys, Bruce Nauman, and Robert Ryman, establishing his name across the Atlantic in the process.

Lawrence Carroll’s paintings often resemble painted objects more than canvasses in their traditional two-dimensional sense, embodying a uniquely authentic approach to the choice and handling of materials. Such works cannot be approached in their entirety from a purely frontal standpoint, as composition and structure conceal multiple levels of readings; they are akin to painterly constructions, wherein the artist would integrate objects either within the structure of the work or on the surface. The latter comprise inlays and layers that create a surface architecture of forms, which are then cobbled together or “repaired”, as Lawrence Carroll liked to say. He would go on to deploy an “aesthetic of scraps” by using ordinary objects, such as flowers coated in paint, or canvas and paper glued or stapled to the surface of his paintings. Works may initially appear monochromatic with light tones, but diverse nuances ranging from beige to brown and yellow will gradually reveal themselves.

Apart from his painterly practice, wherefor he was best-known, Lawrence Carroll has produced numerous illustrative works for such a diverse range of media outlets as The Progressive, The Village Voice, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, The Nation, and many other periodicals. He has also designed artwork for the American thrash metal band Slayer’s album covers. In addition to his original “table paintings” and “white oval paintings”, Lawrence Carroll’s works are collected by galleries and museums worldwide, including but not limited to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, The Margulies Collection in Miami, Jumex Collection in Mexico City, Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, MART in Rovereto, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach, and Museo Cantonale d’Arte in Lugano.

selected artworks

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