Gallery 16 is pleased to welcome back Lauren Davies in her first solo exhibition with the gallery.

When Hell Freezes Over is a mixed media installation that centers on a young polar bear that was shot and killed in the seaside village of Twillingate, Newfoundland. The following year the bear was returned to the town as a prize specimen of taxidermy artistry and has taken on a second life as the main attraction of Twillingate’s tiny museum.  

When Hell Freezes Over presents a sculptural replica of the Twillingate polar bear surrounded by a slightly odd assortment of natural history knock-offs, much like the actual museum in Newfoundland: sparkling iceberg models made from fake sugar cubes; landscapes models that have morphed into objects of household convenience; a tattered scrap of a fleece blanket has turned into a fuzzy waterfall; an explorer’s flag that appears to be made from wood is waving over a snow ball fort that will never melt. Combining mixed media sculpture,
digital prints on fabric and diagrammatic paintings, Davies' installation meshes crafts, conceptualism and environmental concerns with questions about what comprises a museum and one town’s sense of its own history.

Davies received her BFA and MFA in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute. She has exhibited her mixed media sculpture, installations, and drawings at the Oakland Museum, the Headlands Center for the Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Intersection for the Arts, The Lab, Ampersand International Arts and Gallery 16.