Lauren Bergman

Artist Statement

I was looking at photographs in an online archive several years ago and became captivated by an image of a young girl. Upon further research, I realized that this girl’s life had ended in WW2. There was no known name, no information; the realization that this one photo was the only documentation that she had ever existed deeply affected me. I knew immediately that I wanted to give something back to her—an alternative world that would illuminate the beauty and infinite potential of the life she didn’t get to have.

Using reference photos from European archives, I paint these girls and women into idyllic narratives beckoning the viewer to experience a story that didn’t get to unfold; to connect with a life that was so much more than a number. While depicting worlds of beauty and wonder, the paintings are a subversive reminder of the haunting parallels between the past and the troubling resurgence of intolerance today. Injustice thrives when people are dehumanized into categories, enemies, statistics. Art does the opposite - it insists on the particular, the individual, the irreplaceable.