“The Bloom”
Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center
(2026)

Lauren Shapiro's The Bloom is a large-scale modular ceramic wall relief commissioned for Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center in Lakeland, Florida. Its undulating surface and botanical forms draw on the citrus groves native to the region's agricultural landscape.

The work reflects Shapiro's sustained interest in the relationship between natural systems and the built environment, and continues a thread of research into the cultural and ecological histories embedded in South Florida’s ecosystems. Her 2022 installation Three Rivers, a permanent ceramic wall relief at Soho House Miami Pool House, similarly engaged the citrus and tropical fruit histories of Miami's Lemon City neighborhood, layering cast fruits, corals, shells, and flora into a richly glazed modular surface. The Bloom carries that inquiry into a new context and a new region, finding in Lakeland's groves a language of form that is at once local and deeply familiar.

Shapiro conceived the piece with its audience in mind: the patients, families, and caregivers who move through the hospital space. The result is a work that offers beauty as a form of wellness and healing.

Photos: David Gary Lloyd.