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Laura Owens

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Laura Owens
Born1970 (age 53–54)
Euclid, Ohio, US
Alma materRhode Island School of Design
California Institute of the Arts
Known forPainting, Gallery Owner

Laura Owens (born 1970) is an American painter, gallery owner and educator. She emerged in the late 1990s from the Los Angeles art scene. She is known for large-scale paintings that combine a variety of art historical references and painterly techniques. She lives and works in Los Angeles, California.[1]

In 2013, she turned her studio work space into an exhibition space called 356 Mission, in collaboration with Gavin Brown and Wendy Yao.[2] The 356 Mission art space closed in 2019, due to the lease ending.[3]

In 2003 Owens had her first survey exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Owens’s work has been presented in solo exhibitions at Secession, Vienna (2015); Kunstmuseum Bonn (2011); Bonnefanten Museum (2007); Kunsthalle Zürich (2006); Camden Arts Centre, London (2006); Milwaukee Art Museum (2003); Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2003); and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, (2001). Owens had a mid-career survey at the Whitney Museum Of American Art from November 2017 to February 2018.

Early life and education

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Owens was born in 1970 in Euclid, Ohio and raised in nearby Norwalk, Ohio.[4] She received her B.F.A. in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1992.[5] After graduation she moved to Los Angeles for graduate school. In 1994 she attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and received her M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts the same year.[6][7]

Work

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In 2015, Owens made paintings based on World War II-era newspaper stereotype plates she discovered underneath the shingle siding of her Los Angeles home.[8] Like much of her recent work, the paintings combined traditional oil paint with screen printed images digitally manipulated in Adobe Photoshop.

In addition to painting, Owens also creates artists' books.[9] As of 2016, she teaches classes at ArtCenter College of Design.[10]

Owen's work can be found in many public art collections including, the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago;[11] the Museum of Modern Art, New York;[12] the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Los Angeles;[13] the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles;[14] the Guggenheim Museum in New York, New York;[15] the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York;[16] the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Chicago;[17] and the Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee.[18]

Controversy

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In January 2013, Owens exhibited 12 new paintings in a building at 356 Mission Road, across the river from Downtown Los Angeles.[19] Owens continued to run this space, 356 Mission as an exhibition space in collaboration with Gavin Brown and Wendy Yao.[20][21] In May 2018, 356 Mission closed after their 5 year lease came to an end.[22] The bookstore Ooga Booga remains open at its original store location in Chinatown, Los Angeles.[10]

Laura Owens and Gavin Brown have been accused of being involved with gentrification of a predominantly working-class, Hispanic neighborhood with their gallery 356 Mission in of Boyle Heights, on the east side of Los Angeles.[23] Activists of various anti-gentrification groups have protested their galleries and exhibitions in both Los Angeles and New York City.[24] Owens alleges protesters have bullied and threatened her, including death threats.[23] In November 2017, she penned a public statement regarding the issues, after her mid-career survey art exhibition opening at the Whitney Museum of American Art was protested.[25] The 356 Mission art space closed in 2019, due to the lease ending.[3]

Awards and honors

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Owens was awarded the inaugural Bâloise Prize at Art Basel in 1999,[26] received the Willard L. Metcalf Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001,[27][28] and was a Guna S. Mundheim Visual Arts Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin in the spring of 2007.[29] In 2015, she was awarded the Robert De Niro, Sr. prize for her painting practice.[30]

Exhibitions

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Solo exhibitions

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Group exhibitions

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References

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  1. ^ "Collection Online: Laura Owens". Guggenheim Museum. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Retrieved November 27, 2016.
  2. ^ Tarmy, James (March 30, 2015). "If You Go to Only One Gallery in L.A., Go Here". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  3. ^ a b Miranda, Carolina A. (March 30, 2018). "Artist-run space 356 Mission is leaving Boyle Heights. Founders Laura Owens and Wendy Yao explain why". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 28, 2020. Our lease was ending and we felt it was the right time. After five years of doing what we wanted to do, we felt that for personal and practical reasons that we had had a great experience and this is the right moment to close. The lease ends at the end of June. We will be closing in May.
  4. ^ Slenske, Michael (November 26, 2018). "Laura Owens: Between the shadows". LA Times. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  5. ^ "The Forever Now". Our RISD. January 19, 2015. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  6. ^ "Laura Owens".
  7. ^ "Laura Owens Biography". Artnet.com. Retrieved November 27, 2016.
  8. ^ "Laura Owens July 2 – August 30, 2015". Secession. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
  9. ^ "Review: Artist Laura Owens makes books unlike any other books you've seen". Los Angeles Times. December 6, 2019. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  10. ^ a b Miranda, Carolina A. (March 30, 2018). "Artist-run space 356 Mission is leaving Boyle Heights. Founders Laura Owens and Wendy Yao explain why". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
  11. ^ "Collection: Owens, Laura". The Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved November 27, 2016.
  12. ^ "Laura Owens". The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Retrieved November 27, 2016.
  13. ^ "Laura Owens". The Museum of Contemporary Art.
  14. ^ "Laura Owens – LACMA Collections". collections.lacma.org.
  15. ^ "The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation". The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
  16. ^ "Laura Owens". whitney.org.
  17. ^ "Laura Owens, Untitled, 1998". MCA.
  18. ^ "Laura Owens – Milwaukee Art Museum". collection.mam.org.
  19. ^ "Lehrer-Graiwer, Sarah. "Optical Drive." Artforum International 51.7 (2013): 230–239" (PDF).
  20. ^ "If You Go To Only One Gallery in LA, Go Here". Bloomberg.com. March 30, 2015. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
  21. ^ "356 Mission". 356mission.com. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
  22. ^ "356 S. Mission Rd. in Los Angeles to Close". www.artforum.com. March 30, 2018. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  23. ^ a b "Laura Owens Responds To Anti-Gentrification Protesters, Cites Death Threats". Frieze. November 17, 2017. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  24. ^ "Anti-Gentrification Activists Protest Laura Owens Exhibition at the Whitney Museum". Hyperallergic. November 10, 2017. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  25. ^ "Laura Owens Responds to Anti-Gentrification Protests of Her Boyle Heights Gallery". Hyperallergic. November 14, 2017. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  26. ^ "Baloise Art Prize" (PDF). Baloise.com. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  27. ^ "artnet.com Magazine News". www.artnet.com. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
  28. ^ "American Academy of Arts and Letters – Award Winners". www.artsandletters.org. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
  29. ^ "Laura Owens". American Academy in Berlin. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
  30. ^ "Laura Owens Wins 2015 Robert De Niro, Sr. Prize". Artforum. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  31. ^ a b c d e f g h "Dallas Museum of Art Presents Nationally Touring Exhibition 'Laura Owens,' a Mid-Career Survey of the American Artist". ArtfixDaily. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
  32. ^ Villarreal, Ignacio. "Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht Presents Laura Owens". artdaily.com. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
  33. ^ "Artist Talk with Laura Owens". American Academy in Berlin. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
  34. ^ "LAURA OWENS: Kunstmuseum Bonn". www.kunstmuseum-bonn.de. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
  35. ^ "Laura Owens « secession". www.secession.at. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
  36. ^ "Laura Owens at CCA Wattis Institute a pulse-quickening experience". SFGate. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  37. ^ Tuchman, Phyllis (January 4, 2018). "The Sky Is the Limit: Laura Owens Is in Top Form in Superb Whitney Museum Retrospective". ARTnews. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
  38. ^ "DMA Explores Artist's Evolution During Dallas Arts Month". NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
  39. ^ "Laura Owens". The Museum of Contemporary Art. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  40. ^ Villarreal, Ignacio. "Whitney Museum of American Art presents Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner". artdaily.com. Retrieved April 28, 2018.

Further reading

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  • Grosenick, Uta; Riemschneider, Burkhard, eds. (2005). Art Now (25th anniversary ed.). Köln: Taschen. pp. 236–239. ISBN 9783822840931. OCLC 191239335.
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