Lauren Bender

Lauren C. Bender

E d u c a t i o n :

Towson University, Towson, MD 2003
Bachelor of Science, Visual Communications
Honors Thesis in Painting
Summa Cum Laude

S e l e c t e d E x h i b i t i o n s / P e r f o r m a n c e s :

2009
Fleckenstein Gallery, Baltimore, MD: Everybody Draws (exhibition)
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD: Big Pink (performance with William Bender, as part of To Build A House You Start With The Roof: A Franz West Retrospective)
LOF/t at Load of Fun, Baltimore, MD: not BLUNDER but (performance/video) and WILL: A Retrospective (performance/video)

2008
Billy Fischer Memorial Building, Washington, DC: CorpOreo (performance/video as part of Girlish Ways)
The DC Arts Center, Washington, DC: CorpOreo (performance/video as part of the In Your Ear reading series)
Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD: Out of Order (exhibition)
Load of Fun Studios, Baltimore, MD: CorpOreo (performance/video) and Crystallomancy: Book of Twins
(performance with Leigh Bender, as part of the 5th Annual Transmodern Festival)
Carriage House, Baltimore, MD (reading, as part of the i.e. reading series)
Creative Alliance at the Patterson, Baltimore, MD: Why is there an “Ohh” in Poem?
(reading/performance)
Various outdoor sites, Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Is Reads (installation, by Publishing Genius Press)

2007
Theater Project, Baltimore, MD: The Hystery of Heat (performance, with members of the Performance
Thanatology Research Society)
Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD: The Beaux Arts Fair (exhibition)
Rosenberg Gallery, Goucher College, Baltimore, MD: Collaborate Now! (exhibition)
1818 Gallery, Baltimore, MD: Whale Box (reading/performance)
Minas Gallery, Baltimore, MD: Canyon Suite (reading/performance)
The 14 Karat Cabaret, Baltimore, MD: FRUMMSBO! (reading/performance, as part of the Yockadot!
Poetics Theater Festival)
Current Gallery, Baltimore, MD: Reenactments (exhibition)
Various outdoor sites, Baltimore, MD: Dead/Dying (performance)
Flashpoint Gallery, Washington, DC: Anonymous (exhibition)
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD: Human Pyramid (performance, with the Lexie Mountain
Boys)
The Red Room, Baltimore, MD: Big Pants (performance)
Pyramid Atlantic, Washington, DC (reading/performance, as part of the In Your Ear reading series)
Dionysus, Baltimore, MD: Whale Box (reading/performance, as part of the i.e. reading series)

2006
Load of Fun Studios, Baltimore, MD: SPHEAR (performance, as part of Macabaret)
Warehouse Arts Complex, Washington, DC: Exchange (exhibition/performance)
Subbasement Artist’s Studios, Baltimore, MD: Arbitrary Specifics (exhibition)
Wyman Park, Baltimore, MD: Event Staff (performance, as part of the Transmodern Festival)
Scottish Rite Masonic Temple, Baltimore, MD: The Beaux Arts Fair (exhibition)
SoWeBo Gallery, Baltimore, MD: Nostalgia for Almost (exhibition)
Big Orbit Gallery, Buffalo, NY (reading, as part of the Just Buffalo Literary Series)
The 14 Karat Cabaret, Baltimore, MD (reading/performance, as part of the Shattered Wig Review)
The Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD: Ground Songing (performance with members of
the Performance Thanatology Research Society, as part of ArtScape)
Hysteric-Ontological Theater, New York, NY: The Hystery of Heat and The Mountain and the Universe
(performance with members of the Performance Thanatology Research Society)
Center Stage, Baltimore, MD: LACK (performance, as part of These Are Your Instructions)

2005
Clayton & Co. Fine Books, Baltimore, MD (reading/performance, as part of the i.e. reading series)
The Bowery Poetry Club, New York, NY (reading)
Station North Arts and Entertainment District, Baltimore, MD: Picture Window (exhibition)
Current Gallery, Baltimore, MD: Group Show (exhibition)
Scion Lounge, Washington, DC: Burlesque Poetry Hour (reading/performance)

2004
CHELA Gallery, Baltimore, MD: Temporary Human Language (performance)
Spare Room, Baltimore, MD: Matchbox (exhibition)
Seed/Vector, Baltimore, MD: Systems, Codes, Chaos (exhibition)
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD: Cram Sessions (exhibition)
Mt. Vernon Square, Baltimore, MD: Artist’s Book Tent (exhibition as part of ArtScape)
The Talking Head Club, Baltimore, MD (reading/performance as part of the Mobtown Writers Collective)
ACA Galleries, New York, NY: Celebrating the Renegade Press (reading as part of the Boog City series)

2003
CHELA Gallery, Baltimore, MD: The Poetry Wholesaler’s Clearance Event (exhibition)
Blue Elephant Gallery, Frederick, MD: Group Show (exhibition)
Fleckenstein Gallery, Towson, MD: Works On Paper (exhibition)
The Talking Head Club, Baltimore, MD (reading/performance as part of the Mobtown Writers Collective)
Towson Commons Gallery, Towson, MD: AVIARY: Honors Thesis Exhibition (exhibition)

P r o f e s s i o n a l E x p e r i e n c e :

Board of Directors, Narrow House
http://narrowhouserecordings.com
2004 – ongoing

Editor, SUCCESS!
http://www.angelfire.com/poetry/thepixelplus/nhsuccess1.html

Curator, Yockadot! Poetics Theater Festival
Baltimore, MD, Alexandria, VA and Washington, DC
2007

Studio Assistant, S. Denise Tassin
2005 – 2008

Contributing Editor, Radar Review (a critical journal on the arts in Baltimore), 2001 – 2006

Feminine Arbiter of Phrases, Performance Thanatology Research Society, 2004 – ongoing.

Installation:
The Beaux Arts Fair, Scottish Rite Masonic Temple, 2006, Maryland Historical Society, 2007
Their Eyes Are Watching You: Artwork Inspired by Surveillance, Rosenberg Gallery, Goucher College,
2006
Almost Solo, Too Few, Important Things, Make Believe and Pocket Productions, Creative Alliance at the
Patterson, 2007

S e l e c t e d B i b l i o g r a p h y :

Interview by thunk/Ryan Manning
http://metaphysicalthinking.blogspot.com/search/label/lauren bender

Review, The Dictionary Poems by Lauren Bender, New Lights (2004)
http://repopo.wordpress.com/2006/09/29/the-dictionary-poems-by-lauren-bender-newlights/

Interview by Publishing Genius Press
http://www.publishinggenius.com/wbinterview.htm

Kevin Thurston. “From the Visual to the Verbal.” Artvoice [Buffalo] 24 March 2006, v5n12.

P u b l i s h e d W o r k :

Thurston, Kevin and Lauren Bender (illustrator). I’AM BORED Part 1, Boys Are Retards. Maple Spits #9.
2008.
Bender, Lauren. Whale Box. Baltimore, MD: Publishing Genius, 2007.
Bender, Lauren. Poem. Washington, DC: Big Game Books, 2007.
Bender, Lauren. Dictionary Poems. Onedit 8. 2007. http://www.onedit.net/issue8/laurenb/laurenb.html
Bender, Lauren, Ed. WORD@PEEK Issue 1: Lovers 1 Haters 0. Baltimore, MD: PEEK Review. 2006.
Bender, Lauren. The Dictionary Poems. Tempe, AZ: New Lights Press, 2004.
Bender, Lauren. Guide to the Dictionary. Baltimore, MD: Furniture Press, 2003.
Bender, Lauren. “The Good Book.” LINK: A Critical Journal on the Arts in Baltimore and the World.
Baltimore, MD: Link Arts, Inc. 2002

Writings have also appeared in The Shattered Wig Review, Rock Heals, f-hole, and The Poetry Experiment.

H o n o r s :

Artist Group Award Grant presented to Narrow House Recordings, Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, 2008.
Departmental Painting Award, Best in Show, Towson University, 2002.