Carolyn Lieba Francois Lazard is an artist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lazard uses the experience of chronic illness to examine concepts of intimacy and the labor of living involved with chronic illnesses. Lazard expresses their ideas through a variety of mediums including performance, filmmaking, sculpture, writing, photography, sound; as well as environments and installations. Lazard graduated from Bard College in 2010. They earned their MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2019. Lazard is a 2019 Pew Foundation Fellow.
Artistic practice
Alongside their studio practice they are a cofounder of Canaries, with Jesse Cohen and Bonnie Swencionis, a network of cis women, trans and non-binary people living and working with autoimmune conditions and other chronic illnesses. The members are artists, painters, actors, and writers who all experience bodily phenomena outside the frame of biomedical discourse. The group, originally based in NYC, has taken the form of a listserve, an art collective, and a support group with regular meetings. As a collective they have exhibited at Recess, NY, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NY, and Franklin Street Works, CT. Lazard's work has been exhibited internationally including at the Kunsthal Aaruhs, Denmark; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and The Camden Art Center, London. Nationally, they have exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; New Museum, New York; and had screenings at the Anthology Film Archives, New York. Lazard was included in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, curated by Rujeko Hockley and Jane Panetta. Lazard was a participant alongside 75 other artists including fellow Philadelphia-based artist Tiona Nekkia McClodden. Lazard's published works include a 2019 work commissioned by Recess titled Accessibility in the Arts: A Promise and a Practice and The World is Unknown, published by Triple Canopy as a part of their Immaterial Literature project area. In 2019, Lazard co-organized the I Wanna Be With You Everywhere festival celebrating disability arts in New York City. One of Lazard's works, Support System, 2016, was featured on the cover of Art Papers' winter 2018/2019 edition. The work documents a 12-hour performance completed by the artist where they spent the day in bed. In March 2017, Lazard co-signed an open letter written by Hannah Black demanding the Whitney Biennial remove the Open Casket painting by Dana Schutz. For the 2017 New Museum exhibition "Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon"Lazard installed A Conspiracy, 12 white-noise machines installed in one of the elevators.
