Laurie Frick
Laurie Frick uses data to examine what we can know about ourselves. In her hand-built installations, drawings and small works she experiments with how we will consume the mass of data increasingly captured about us. Evidence of her engineering background and long-history in high-tech are seen in the deep data analysis and detailed explanations of how this future will unfold. Her work about the future of data were recently featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, Atlantic and Wired Magazine; she has been invited to talk at Google, SXSW, Stanford and TEDx. Recipient of numerous residencies and awards, including Samsung Research, Yaddo, Bemis and Facebook. She holds an MFA from the New York Studio School, an MBA from University of Southern California and studied at NYU’s ITP program that melded art and technology into her current data work. Frick’s artwork has been exhibited in museums, galleries and art spaces across North America, including Musee de la Civilization in Quebec City, Science Museum in Oklahoma City, Pavel Zoubok in New York and Edward Cella in Los Angeles.
Data is like plastic, incredibly useful and horrible at the same time. In the past decade we’ve gone from being mostly anonymous to almost constantly tracked. Data surrounds us and follows us around. I use rigorous methods to capture, analyze and tell a story with data. My work attempts to explain and anticipate a world of pervasive data through large hand-made patterned wall installations. To contrast a cold and polished computer aesthetic, I use warmer, more familiar materials like wood, paper, wool, leather and glass. I believe the physicality of data and hand-built patterns will let us read and understand what our bodies and behavior tell us. Numeric data are abstract concepts, as humans we simply can’t make sense of large numbers, but we do have an ability to understand pattern - especially colorful pattern intuitively.
Work on Paper
From The Imagined Time Series
Handmade and cut paper on alumalite panels
Time Divisions
Matte finish, handcut kiln fired glass
The Imagined Time Series
Watercolors & Ink. Framed
Exhibitions & Publications
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Austin Community College, Highland Art Gallery, curated by Peter Bonfitto, Sept 2023
Science Museum smART space Gallery, Prismatic, Oklahoma City, OK, 2022- 2023
Google, COP25 UN Climate Change Conference, What We Eat (Installation), Madrid, Spain 2019
NYU Langone Medical Center, Metamorphosis: Agents of Change, Laurie Frick and Jaq Chartier, curated by Katherine Meehan, New York, NY 2019
Transylvania University, Data, Mine: Hasan Elahi & Laurie Frick, Lexington, KY, 2019
Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, PCA&D, Quantified-Self: the data doesn't lie, 2017
Pavel Zoubok Gallery, Who are you, what day is it? New York, 2015
Texas State University, Patterned Language, San Marcos, TX, 2014
Marfa Contemporary, Walking, eating, sleeping, Marfa, TX, 2013
Oklahoma Contemporary, Walking, eating, sleeping, Oklahoma City, 2013
Real Art Ways, Making Tracks, Hartford, CT, 2012
Edward Cella Gallery, Death and Life of an Object: Lynn Aldrich, Laurie Frick, Tim Hawkinson, Los Angeles, CA 2012
W&tWork, Quantify-me, Austin, TX 2012
Edward Cella Gallery, Sleep Patterns, Los Angeles, CA 2011
Robert Steele Gallery, Visual Time, New York, NY 2009
Gallery Shoal Creek, Words, Austin, TX 2009
Gallery Shoal Creek, Austin, TX 2008
Robert Steele Gallery, New York, NY 2007
Gallery Shoal Creek, Austin, TX 2006
SELECTED TALKS & LECTURES
SXSW, Data Art: Processes and Perspectives + Data Art as Time Capsule of the Anthropocene (2 speaker panels), Austin, TX 2023
DataViz Global Meetup, zoom talk available here, Dallas, TX 2021
Google, Talks at Google, Data is Irresistible, Austin, TX 2019
Pecha Kucha, I want my Data, Austin, TX 2019
SXSW, The changing role of Women in the Arts, Austin, TX 2019
University of Rhode Island, Imagine when everything about you is known, Providence, RI 2019
Transylvania University, Art Talk: Hasan Elahi & Laurie Frick, Lexington, KY 2019
Visionary Voices Lecture Series, City of Austin Cultural Arts Division, Inside story of why I want my data, 2019
TEDx LadyBirdLake, Austin, I want my data! 2018
Google@Thought: Art in the Digital Age, Brussels 2017
SXSW, Relationships are Ripe for Machine Learning, Austin, 2017
Technarte: The Fusion of Art and Technology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 2016
DC Art Science Evening Rendezvous (DASER), Cultural program of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC, 2016
World Future Society, Nanobot Murals, Washington DC, 2016
EYEO Festival, Nanobot Murals, Minneapolis, 2016
IBM Design Research Conference keynote, The art of data, Austin, 2016
Advertising Age Data Conference, Data is Beautiful, New York, 2015
International Time-Use conference keynote, The art of time-use, Ankara, Turkey, 2015
Microsoft Research, Studio 99, The art of the data-selfie, Seattle, 2015
SXSW, From Digital Sharecropping to Data Emancipation, Austin, 2015
MediaX, Stanford University, Art makes data sticky, Palo Alto, 2014
Creative Mornings, Human data, don't hide....get more, Austin, 2014
TEDx Austin, The art of self-surveillance, Austin, 2013
SXSW, Warhol goes Social, creativity in the tech age, Austin, 2013
Quantified-Self European Conference, Plenary Closing, Amsterdam, NL 2011
LASER (Leonardo Art/Science Evening Rendezvous) University of San Francisco, 2011
CalArts, Conversations on Media, Culture and Practice, Los Angeles, 2011
Hyperallergic, Sleep and Self-Tracking, Brooklyn, 2011
SELECTED ARTICLES / PUBLICATIONS / REVIEWS
LUXE Magazine, Stylemaker: Data Drives this colorful Artist, April 2023
UPROXX, Data Artist Laurie Frick finds humanity in the Machine, social media video for Lexus | Los Angeles, November 2021
Codaworx, Toni Sikes, Mar 2021 | 25 Creative Revolutionaries Lead the way for Positive Change
MutualArt, Maya Garabedian, July 10, 2020 | Mediums of the 21st Century: iPads, 3D Printing and Data
Sightlines Profile, Barbara Purcell, May 13, 2020 | Waiting for the Kiln to Cool
Sightlines, Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Jan 13, 2019 | A New Artistic Moment for the Lamar Underpass
CultureMap, Katie Friel, Sep 13, 2018 | Colorful new mural gives busy Lamar Boulevard a temporary refresh
All Things Considered: NPR radio and news, Laura Sydell, Feb 28, 2018 | An artist sees data so powerful it can help us pick better friends
Wired Magazine, Liz Stinson, Feb 15, 2017 | The Nerdy Charm of Artisanal, Hand-drawn Infographics
Huffington Post, Sarah DiGuilio, July 15, 2016 | Sleep + Your Brain = This
Haaretz Sunday Magazine Feature, Neta Alexander Jan 31, 2016 | Follow Yourselves, interview with Laurie Frick
Top 10 People of the Year, Tribeza Magazine, Dec 2015 | The locals whose work is changing the course of Austin's culture
NPR Studio 360 from WNYC, Jul 2, 2015, Lindsay Patterson | A quantified artist turns data into sculpture
Metaleptic, Jul 16, 2015, Tatiana Istomina | Laurie Frick: The future and present of data art
ARTE TV, France, Jun 2015, Charles-Henry Groult | We measure to know ourselves better
The Atlantic, May 14, 2015, Jacoba Urist | The rise of the data artist
Ovation Network, American Canvas with Dave Holmes, Mar 2015 | FRICKbits and a visit to Austin
Austin American Statesman, Oct 26, 2014, Jeanne-Claire van Ryzin | Your Travels in Artwork
EMBO Reports, Nature Publishing Group essay by Laurie Frick, Mar 2014 | Should you worry or embrace your data?
ArtDesk Magazine, Aug 2013, Allison Meier | The Quantified-Self
Hartford Courant, Jan 8, 2013, Susan Dunne | Making Tracks at RealArtWays
HuffingtonPost, Apr 2012, Peter Frank | The bricolage approach to sculpture
Austin Statesman, Jan 28, 2012, Jeanne Claire van Ryzin | New installation gets down to the nitty-gritty
Chronicle, Jan 27, 2012. Wayne Alan Brenner | The artist as data, casting the metrics of her life in visual form
Huffington Post, Jan 5, 2012 update 2017, Kimberly Brooks | Laurie Frick’s Self Quantifying Patterns Track the Unique Patterns of Ourselves
KUT NPR for Austin, Texas, Jan 2012, Mike Lee | Arts Eclectic, Quantify-Me
LeMonde.fr, Dec 2011, Hubert Guillaud | Comment écrirons-nous demain?
Los Angeles Times, Mar 2011, Leah Ollman | Cold Hard Data Gets Transformed
New Scientist Magazine, Mar 2011, Jonathan Keats | Rhythms of Life