Rachel Owens (born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1972) is an American artist. She is best known for her multi-media sculptures and installations, which often incorporate a social component. Many of her works are made from crushed glass. She lives and works in New York, NY, and is an assistant professor of art and design at

Purchase College Purchasing is the process a business or organization uses to acquire goods or services to accomplish its goals. Although there are several organizations that attempt to set standards in the purchasing process, processes can vary greatly between ...

, SUNY. Engaged in broad fields of practice from public art and traditional gallery work to activist based Community Theater, Owens tackles issues of hierarchical social conditions, environmental destruction, consumption and the points where these things intersect. Working sculpturally, performatively and socially, she uses material as meaning: what the sculpture is made of- is what the sculpture means- is what the sculpture does. Bottle shards, cardboard, coal, cut up humvees, and the dust of marble are all used to convey meaning, emotion, and action as they take on forms from porch to iceberg. Often with jobs beyond metaphor, the sculptures become stages, public seating, centers for protest and elevated vantage points. Owens has been included in exhibitions both in the US and internationally including The X Krasnoyarsk Biennial, RU; Franco Soffiantino Contemporary, IT; Austrian Cultural Forum, NY; The Frist Museum, TN; Socrates Sculpture Park, LIC; and the New Museum Window, NY among others. In February of 2020, her solo museum show, The Hypogean Tip opened at The Housatonic Museum of Art in Bridgeport CT. She has had reviews and inclusion in publications including ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', ''Art in America'', ''Modern Painters'', ''Flash Art'' and ''Triple Canopy Anthology'', and she has received grants from the Joan Mitchell, Pollack Krasner, and Harpo Foundations as well as a Cultural Humanitarian Grant from the US consulate. Her work can be found in many collections in the US and abroad, among them; The Beth Rudin Dewoody Collection, The Pritzker Family, Sprint Collection and D. Mullin JR. Owens is assistant professor of art & design and chair of the sculpture department at SUNY Purchase College.

Education

Owens received a BFA from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

, Lawrence. She received an MFA from the

School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...

in 1999.

Exhibitions

Owens has exhibited internationally.

Solo, 2-person and public representations

* 2020: Hypogean Tip,

Housatonic Museum of Art The Housatonic Museum of Art is a museum at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The museum's collection is displayed throughout the college campus and in the Burt Chernow Galleries, which also hosts visiting exhibitions. Coll ...

, Bridgeport CT * 2019: Museum of the Cave of the Anthropocene, Untitled, Miami, FL (with Esteban Ocamp-Giraldo) * 2017: MOTHER,

Ziehersmith ZieherSmith is a New York City contemporary art gallery run by Andrea Smith Zieher and Scott Zieher. Gallery exhibitions have been widely reviewed, including shows by artists Tucker Nichols, Rachel Owens, Rachel Rossin, Christoph Ruckäberle, Al ...

, NYC, * 2016: Inveterate Composition for Clare,

, Purchase, NY (ongoing) * 2015: Smile Always,

and Horton Gallery, NYC * 2013: Almost Antipodeans, BAM Fischer, Brooklyn , Inveterate Composition for Clare, Frist Center for the Arts, Nashville , Soft Edges, Track 13, Nashville * 2012: She's Crafty: Emergency Making Action,

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sc ...

window, NYC * 2011: Inveterate Composition for Clare, Dag Hammarskjöld Park, New York * 2010: Props,

ZieherSmith ZieherSmith is a New York City contemporary art gallery run by Andrea Smith Zieher and Scott Zieher. Gallery exhibitions have been widely reviewed, including shows by artists Tucker Nichols, Rachel Owens, Rachel Rossin, Christoph Ruckäberle, Al ...

, New York * 2008: Harboring,

, New York * 2007: Wishing Well, presented by

, NADA Art Fair, Miami * 2006: Overthrows,

, New York * 2005: Scatter-Hoarder,

, New York

Select group exhibitions

* 2020: Happy Hardcore, Miriam Gallery, Brooklyn New York * 2017: Inaugural Exhibition, The Bunker, Collection of Beth Rudin Dewoody, Palm Beach Florida (through 2019) , Dead Horse Bay, Agnes Varis Center for the Arts, Brooklyn, New York Post-Election, September Gallery, Hudson, New York , Double Edged, Circuit 12, Dallas, Texas , It’s Happening: 50 Years of Public Art in NYC Parks , Phillip Johnson

Glass House The Glass House, or Johnson house, is a historic house museum on Ponus Ridge Road in New Canaan, Connecticut built in 1948–49. It was designed by architect Philip Johnson as his own residence. It has been called his "signature work". The Glas ...

Summer Benefit, New Canaan Connecticut * 2016: Kansas City Artists Coalition: 40 years, Kansas City, Missouri , Brural, Temporary Storage, curated by Ilya Shipolovisch, Brooklyn , 12x12, Black Ball Projects, Brooklyn , Gut Rehab, Realty Collective, Brooklyn (organized and exhibited) * 2015: Artists at Work, The Cantor Center,

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, Stanford California (through 2016) , Alchemy, DC Moore, NYC , Fall Fete,

Momenta Art Momenta Art was an artist-run, not-for-profit organization and gallery, which from its founding in 1986Fensterstock, Ann. Art on the Block : Tracking the New York Art World from Soho to the Bowery, Bushwick and Beyond. First edition. New York, NY ...

, Brooklyn, New York * 2014: Untitled,

and Horton, Miami , Romeo and Juliet, Scenic Designer, Falconworks Production, Brooklyn, New York * 2013: X Krasnoyarsk Biennial, Krasnoyarsk Russia ,

Creative Time Creative Time is a New York-based nonprofit arts organization. It was founded in 1974 to support the creation of innovative, site-specific, socially engaged artworks in the public realm, particularly in vacant spaces of historical and architectura ...

Sandcastle Competition,

Klaus Biesenbach Klaus Biesenbach (born 1966)Erica Orden (December 26, 2009)Herr Zeitgeist''New York Magazine''. is a European American curator and the museum director. He is the Director of the Neue Nationalgalerie, with Berggruen Museum and Scharf-Gerstenberg Co ...

judge, Queens * 2012: Next Wave Art, BAM, Brooklyn New York * 2011: BNA,

, Nashville, Tennessee * 2010: Nineteen Eighty-Four,

Austrian Cultural Forum An Austrian Cultural Forum is an agency of the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, whose task consists of the cultural and scientific dialogue with artists and scientists of each particular host country. A Cultural forum focuse ...

, curated by David Harper, Martha Kirszenbaum, & David Komary, New York , Evading Customs_Milan, Le Dictateur, Milan , Knock Knock Who's There? That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore, Armand Bartos Fine Art, New York , * 2009: Evading Customs, curated by Peter Russo and Lumi Tan, Brown, London , NADA/ART IN/VISIBLE SPACES, 395 Flushing, Brooklyn, New York , Grand Reopening,

, New York * Lover, curated by Kate Gilmore and Candice Madey, On Stellar Rays, New York On From Here, Guild and Greyshkul, New York , I Thought Our Worlds Were The Same, Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville * 2008: New Black, presented by Triplecanopy, Starr Space, Brooklyn, New York * 2007: EFA 2007 Exhibition (Groundswell),

Socrates Sculpture Park Socrates Sculpture Park is an outdoor museum and public park where artists can create and exhibit sculptures and multi-media installations. It is located one block from the Noguchi Museum at the intersection of Broadway and Vernon Boulevard in th ...

, Long Island City, New York * 2006: Empathetic, curated by Elizabeth Thomas, Temple Gallery, Philadelphia , Ionesco's Friends, curated Irina Zucca, Francosoffiantino Artecontemporanea, Turin * 2005: No Apology for Breathing, Jack the Pelican Presents, Brooklyn , The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Sara Nightingale Gallery, Watermill, New York * 2004: Some Exhaust, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York , Postcards from the Edge, Brent Sikkema Gallery, New York , Andy Warhol’s Living Room, Sara Nightingale Gallery, Watermill, New York , Falling in Love with the Jailer’s Daughter, Project Green, Brooklyn, New York * 2003:

Brooklyn Underground Film Festival The Brooklyn Underground Film Festival was an annual showcase of typically low-budget, under-distributed or amateur videos and metavideos. The festival was initially held in DUMBO, Brooklyn and later moved to Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, N ...

, DUMBO, Brooklyn, New York , Talent Show, Project Green, Brooklyn, New York , Occurrences: The Performative Aspects of Video, Betty Rymer Gallery, Chicago * 2002: One Day, In a Day, Everyday, part of Sans, APEX art, New York (curated by

Mira Schor Mira Schor (born June 1, 1950) is an American artist, writer, editor, and educator, known for her contributions to art criticism, critical discourse on the status of painting in contemporary art and culture as well as to feminist art movement, femi ...

) , New Homes for America Under Construction, Weather Records, Brooklyn, New York , Parallel Sensations, Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, Brooklyn, New York * 2000: Hit and Run 4, New York curated by Edward Winkelman

Public commissions

* ''The Hypogean Tip'',

, Bridgeport CT, 2020 * ''Life on the Other Side of a Broken Glass Ceiling'', NYC Parks Department, 2017 * ''Machinations'',

Yeltsin Center Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center, also known simply as the Yeltsin Center, is a social, cultural and educational center, which opened in Yekaterinburg in 2015. The architect of the project is Boris Bernaskoni, the founder of BERNASKONI interdis ...

, Performance commissioned by US Consulate Moscow, 2016 * ''Almost Antipodeans'', X Krasnoyarsk Biennial, commissioned by BAM and Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation, 2013 * ''Skin (US),''

Brooklyn Academy of Music The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...

, 2012 * ''Inveterate Composition for Clare,'' NYC Parks Department, 2011 * ''Privet,''

, 2010 * ''Groundswell,''

, 2007 * ''Wishing Well'', NADA Art Fair, Miami 2007

Awards and recognition

Owens' work has been discussed in the New York Times, Art in America, Hyperallergic, Urban Glass, Sculpture Magazine, and the Village Voice, among other publications. She has received grants from the

Joan Mitchell Foundation Joan Mitchell (February 12, 1925 – October 30, 1992) was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artis ...

, the

Pollock-Krasner Foundation The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 for the purpose of providing financial assistance to individual working artists of established ability. It was established at the bequest of Lee Krasner, who was an American abstract expression ...

, the Harpo Foundation, and the

United States Embassy The United States has the second most diplomatic missions of any country in the world after Mainland China, including 166 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, as well as observer state Vatican City and non-member countries Kosovo a ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Catalogues and publications

The Hypogean Tip, with essays from Robbin Zella, Maisa Tisdale and Stamatina Gregory,

February 2020 Gut Rehab, newspaper project in conjunction with exhibition, with contributions from

Adam Helms Adam Helms (born 1974) is an American contemporary artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York City. His work encompasses drawing, printmaking, sculpture, assemblage, and archival research, often having to do with the iconography of marginal ...

, Scott Zieher, Ilya Shipilovitch,

F15, publication as part of Smile Always at Ziehersmith Gallery, NYC 2015 Kraznoyarsk Biennial, essay from Anna Tolstova 2013 Invalid Format: Triple Canopy Anthology, vol. 1, 2012 Nineteen Eighty-Four,

, essay by David Harper 2010 EAF 2007,

, essay from Alyson Baker, 2007

References

External links

Talk at the Frist Art Museum

''Mother'' at ZieherSmith

Faculty Profile at Purchase College, SUNY
{{DEFAULTSORT:Owens, Rachel American women sculptors Living people 1972 births 21st-century American sculptors 21st-century American women artists 20th-century American women artists 20th-century American sculptors American glass artists Women glass artists American installation artists