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