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 She is known for large-scale paintings that combine a variety of art historical references and painterly techniques.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. In 2013, she turned her studio work space into an exhibition space called ''356 Mission'', in collaboration with art dealer Gavin Brown and Wendy Yao. Soon after, she hosted a second location with the art bookstore ''Ooga Booga #2'' in the front of the building. The ''356 Mission'' art space closed in 2019, due to the lease ending. In 2003 Owens had her first survey exhibition at the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's ...

. 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 The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

from November 2017 to February 2018.

Early life and education

Owens was born in 1970 in

Euclid, Ohio Euclid is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It is an inner ring suburb of Cleveland. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 49,692. History The City of Euclid was originally a part of Euclid Township, first m ...

and raised in nearby Norwalk, Ohio. She received her B.F.A. in Painting from the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

in 1992. After graduation she moved to Los Angeles for graduate school. In 1994 she attended the

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is an artists residency located in Madison, Maine, just outside of Skowhegan. Every year, the program accepts online applications from emerging artists from November through January, and selects 65 ...

and received her M.F.A. from the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

the same year.

Work

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. 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 Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects. Overview Artists' books have employed a ...

. As of 2016, she teaches classes at

ArtCenter College of Design Art Center College of Design (stylized as ArtCenter College of Design) is a private art college in Pasadena, California. History ArtCenter College of Design was founded in 1930 in downtown Los Angeles as the Art Center School. In 1935, Fred ...

. Owen's work can be found in many public art collections including, the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York; the

, Los Angeles; the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 19 ...

, Los Angeles; the Guggenheim Museum in New York, New York; the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

, New York; the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporar ...

, Chicago; and the

Milwaukee Art Museum The Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) is an art museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its collection contains nearly 25,000 works of art. Location and Visit Located on the lakefront of Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee Art Museum is one of the largest art museu ...

, Milwaukee.

Controversy

In January 2013, Owens exhibited 12 new paintings in a building at 356 Mission Road, across the river from Downtown Los Angeles. Owens continued to run this space, ''356 Mission'' as an exhibition space in collaboration with Gavin Brown and Wendy Yao. In May 2018, ''356 Mission'' closed after their 5 year lease came to an end. The bookstore ''Ooga Booga'' remains open at its original store location in Chinatown, Los Angeles. 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 Boyle is an English, Irish and Scottish surname of Gaelic, Anglo-Saxon or Norman origin. In the northwest of Ireland it is one of the most common family names. Notable people with the surname include: Disambiguation *Adam Boyle (disambiguation), ...

, on the east side of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. Activists of various anti-gentrification groups have protested their galleries and exhibitions in both Los Angeles and New York City. Owens alleges protesters have bullied and threatened her, including death threats. In November 2017, she penned a public statement regarding the issues, after her mid-career survey art exhibition opening at the

was protested. The ''356 Mission'' art space closed in 2019, due to the lease ending.

Awards and honors

Owens was awarded the inaugural Bâloise Prize at Art Basel in 1999, received the Willard L. Metcalf Award in Art from the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

in 2001, and was a Guna S. Mundheim Visual Arts Fellow at the

American Academy in Berlin The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and Germany ...

in the spring of 2007. In 2015, she was awarded the Robert De Niro, Sr. prize for her painting practice.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

* 2001: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts * 2003: Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (touring) * 2003: Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado * 2003: Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin * 2004:

The Fabric Workshop and Museum The Fabric Workshop and Museum, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, is a non-profit arts organization devoted to creating new work in new materials and new media in collaboration with emerging, nationally, and internationally rec ...

, Philadelphia * 2006:

Kunsthalle Zurich A kunsthalle is a facility that mounts temporary art exhibitions, similar to an art gallery. It is distinct from an art museum by not having a permanent collection. In the German-speaking regions of Europe, ''Kunsthallen'' are often operated by ...

, Zurich, Switzerland * 2006: Camden Arts Centre, London * 2007: Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht, The Netherlands * 2007: American Academy studio exhibition, Berlin * 2007: Ausstellungshalle Zeitgenossische Kunst, Munster * 2011: Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany * 2015: Secession, Vienna * 2016: CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, California * 2017:

* 2018: Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) *2018:

Group exhibitions

* 2016: La collection Thea Westreich Wagner et Ethan Wagner, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Owens, Laura 1970 births 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American painters 21st-century American women artists American women painters Bâloise Prize winners Living people Rhode Island School of Design alumni California Institute of the Arts alumni American contemporary painters