Camden Arts Centre

Laura Owens

29 Sep - 26 Nov 2006

LAURA OWENS
"Paintings"

Laura Owens' inventiveness with paint and delight in picture making are clear in these recent paintings. She is influenced by Chinese and Japanese landscape painting, embroidery and textiles, as well Hindu reliefs and tapestry. Her mythical landscapes are populated by unusual groups of creatures and plants. They glide between representation and abstraction.
‘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 the careful planning process is revealed in the small studies. The resulting paintings take on classic Color Field painting as well as still life and landscape.
Influenced by the abstract painter, Mary Heilman, who taught Owens 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 Zürich with texts by Gloria Sutton, Rod Wengham and Beatriz Ruf.

© Laura Owens
Untitled, 2004
Copyright the artist; Thea Westreich and Ethan Wagner
 

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