Laura Owens, Untitled, 2006, Acrylic and oil on linen. Copyright the artist; courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London.
LONDON, ENGLAND.- A new exhibition opens September 29 at Camden Arts Centre by leading LA-based artist Laura Owens of her paintings from the last 10 years. Owens is the most prominent amongst a generation of young artists who re-invigorated painting in the 1990s. Her canvases, known for their exuberance and inventiveness, will be shown alongside preparatory studies on canvas.
Blending an extraordinary range of techniques, Owens sources material from Western art history, folk and decorative art. She creates distinctive and multi-layered surfaces which glide between representation and abstraction. Her sheer pleasure in the act of picture making is evident in these emotionally heightened works.
¡®I feel like there¡¯s a space of personal freedom for me where my art-making happens. When I go into that space, I¡¯m completely in this world of possibility.¡¯ - Laura Owens
Owens¡¯ canvases appear effortlessly executed but hide a carefully planned process, revealed in the accompanying small studies. The finished paintings take on classic Color Field painting as well as still life and landscape - mythical scenes are populated by unusual groups of creatures.
Influenced by the abstract painter, Mary Heilman, who Owens met at Cal Arts and who had her first British solo show at Camden Arts Centre in 2001, and by American folk art, Owens herself is an important reference point for younger painters.
The exhibition is accompanied by a new, fully-illustrated catalogue published by Kunsthalle Z¨¹rich with texts by Gloria Sutton, Rod Wengham and Beatrix Ruf.
Camden Arts Centre is a venue for contemporary visual art and education, where ideas are made visible and people of all ages and abilities can engage in the creative process of making art. Our pioneering and varied programme of artist-led courses and other education activities has gained an international reputation as a model of good practice. We are known as a forward-thinking organisation where artists and others can see, make and talk about art.
Laura Owens was born in Euclid, Ohio in 1970, she lives and works in Los Angeles. She has had solo exhibitions at Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2006), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2003) and Inverleith House, Royal Botanical Garden, Edinburgh (2000). Group exhibitions include Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2004), Eight Propositions in Contemporary Drawing, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2002) and Urgent Painting, Mus¨¦e d¡¯Art Moderne de La Ville de Paris, Paris (2002). This exhibition is selected in collaboration with the artist from her recent major exhibition at Kunsthalle Z¨¹rich.