Natalie Lauren Sims
TULSA, OKLAHOMA
I paint from inside memory, where grief and care share the same room. My work lives in Black domestic spaces kitchens, tables, quiet interiors, places where survival is practiced daily and love is stored without ceremony. I am interested in what we keep, what we carry forward, and what refuses to disappear.
Working slowly in oil paint, I build layered surfaces that hold shadow, weight, and pause. I don’t paint trauma itself, but the air it leaves behind the stillness, the tenderness, the after. Through painting, I am shaping a language for Black interior life, not as spectacle, but as shelter, intelligence, and endurance.
BIOGRAPHY
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Lives and Works between Tulsa, Oklahoma and Mexico City
EDUCATION
2005 BFA, International Academy of Art, Tampa, FL
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 Pittsburg, PA, August Wilson African American Cultural Center, “Minding My Business
( I Said What I Said ),
May 22nd - September 12 ,2021 Tulsa, OK,, Oklahoma State University, “In Bloom”,
Wildly Present In This Soil Of Ours” June 15 - June 21st
2022 Tulsa, OK, Zarrow Foundation Art Gallery “Wide Eyed Wonders”, June 15th - July 6th, 2022
2023 London, England, Christies London, “Note To Self” Selling Exhibition, March 28th - April 14th, 2023
Los Angeles, CA, Art Genesis, “100 Days of Summer, July 28th - August 5th 2023
SPECIAL PROJECTS
2023 Tulsa Juneteenth Festival,Tulsa Oklahoma, Chair of Arts and Culture
Beloved Benefit, Atlanta Georgia, Creative Direction, August 24th, 2023
2022 Project Row House, Houston TX, Site Specific Installation, Songwriting and Healing
Tulsa Juneteenth Festival, Tulsa Oklahoma, Chair of Arts and Culture Stacey Abrams
Atlanta, GA Creative Direction Cultural Experience
2021 Ava Duvernay's LEAP, Co-Directed Visual Poem & Short Film, “Would You Kill God Too” on police brutality and
the murder of Brionna Taylor. Black Harvest Film Festival, Chicago Illinois, Selected Work - “Would You Kill God Too”
Urban World Film Festival, Selected Work- “Would You Kill God Too”
“This Is Not A Celebration” An artistic homage and lament series in 100 year commemoration of
1921 Tulsa Massacre by interdisciplinary artists.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2023 Freed, Blayklee. “Beyond What is: Natalie Lauren’s work makes room for duality” (Aug 31, 202
Tulsa People Magazine [ online ] Masterson, Danielle. “Mashonda Tifrere’s 100 Days of Summer Does Not Disappoint”,
LA Sentinel, (August 3rd, 2023) [online] Team Ebony. “Tulsa Artists Natalie Lauren Embodies Female Sovereignty in
London Exhibition ’Note To Self’, Ebony Magazine, ( April 3rd, 2023) [online]
2021 Chow, Andrew. “Would You Kill God Too?” W.J. Lofton's New Poem, Commissioned by Ava
DuVernay, Puts a Spotlight on Breonna Taylor’s Killers”, Time Magazine (January 21, 2021) [online] Jackson,
Angelique.“Urbanworld Film Festival Announces 25th Anniversary Slate (EXCLUSIVE)”, Variety, (September 21st 2023) [online]