The Happy Lion is pleased to present The Hot Needle of Inquiry, first solo exhibition in Los Angeles of New York based artist Lauren Beck. Heavily influenced by the science fiction writing of HP Lovecraft and Franklin Herbert, Beck's works on paper portray fantastical worlds inhabited by mythical characters performing mystical rituals. In futuristic desert-like landscapes, layers of disparate imagery are fused with intersecting themes of spirituality, sexuality, and power.

Larkin Grimm writes, Lauren Beck's erotic watercolors evoke a dark feminist mystique that raises questions about the state of the modern church of silicone robot sex.  Lauren's paintings show a childlike sexual fantasy that takes its cues from classic 60's and 70's fetish porn but brings it up to a contemporary, hairy armpit hippie dystopia context, fusing visions of the apocalypse with moments of spiritual transcendence through sexual transcendence.  It's a weird circus in the vivid-colored landscape of Hell, a beautiful explosion of light and color executed with Lauren's incredible technique and attention to the tiniest detail.  Portraying cosmic sex crimes and comic strip homicidal ecstasy, presenting the lyrical romance of nasty vulva-gore, illustrating pedantic hypersexual pussy control in a land of phallic rock formations, cock mutations and psychic rock mutilations, Lauren Beck is warding off the evil eye of the stale male gaze.

Lauren Beck was born in Austin, Texas and is a graduate of Yale University. She has been in several exhibitions, including a solo presentation with Newman Popiashvili Gallery in New York and group shows at Kantor/Feuer in Los Angeles, Gavin Brown's Enterprise at Passerby in NY, and at Brooklyn Fireproof in NY. She lives and works in upstate New York.

The Happy Lion is located at 963 Chung King Road in Los Angeles. Gallery hours are Weds through Saturday, 11-6 and by appointment. For additional information or visuals, please contact the gallery at 213.625.1360 or happylion@pacbell.net.