In CELESTIAL NAVIGATION, Lauren Boilini presents a dynamic body of large-scale oil paintings on linen that pulse with movement and density. Swirling congregations of birds, insects, feathers, and other forms collide and repeat, building images that hover between abundance and overload. Through this accumulation, Boilini examines how excess—when taken to its extreme—can dissolve meaning and become pattern, reflecting a culture driven by insatiable desire and perpetual consumption.

Boilini’s studio practice is grounded in research, reading, and storytelling. Drawing from epic narratives and historical and contemporary events, she constructs layered visual worlds that explore collective behavior and shared momentum. Her work is informed by moments when individuals converge—whether in migration, ritual, celebration, conflict, or destruction—and by the psychological forces that propel people toward unity, dominance, or violence.

Narrative has long been central to Boilini’s practice. Her ongoing work with sequential art and artist books has shaped her approach to painting, guiding her movement between intimate drawings and expansive canvases. Celestial Navigation, Boilini’s first solo museum exhibition, brings these threads together, offering a visually immersive meditation on repetition, desire, and the complex patterns formed when many become one.

Artist Statement:
This work examines excess, when it becomes meaningless and falls into pattern. This gluttony is reflected back to us: we are a hedonistic society, always looking for more until the more we are looking for loses its meaning.