Laura Owens
September 8 - November 6, 2004
Laura Owens in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Untitled, 2003. Hand embroidery and silkscreen print on tussah silk. 69 1/2 x 50 inches. Photo: Aaron Igler | |
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The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is pleased to present a stunning new body of work by Los Angeles-based painter Laura Owens. Through her residency at the FWM, Owens created a suite of seven hand-embroidered prints on silk, which will be on view September 8, 2004 - November 6, 2004. A gallery talk by Owens and FWM Project Coordinator, Olivia Schreiner, will take place on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 at 6:00 p.m. and a lecture on Owens's work by Paul Schimmel, Chief Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, will be held on November 5, 2004 at 6:00 p.m.
The new series of works employ the broad range of influences, application techniques, and iconography that have placed Owens at the forefront of contemporary painting. Though created in a new medium, these works build on the artist's long time interest in European, Asian and American landscape painting, tapestries and decorative textile design. As with her strongest paintings, abstract and figurative elements establish a complex series of formal relationships.
In Owens' untitled beehive paintings from 1998, the black and yellow stripes of the bees are made up of three-dimensional rows of paint applied directly from the tube; the marks in this painting were directly inspired by an embroidered pillow the artist purchased at an estate sale. Through the FWM's Artist-in-Residence Program, Owens has been able to explore the range of mark-making, textures and palette available through historical embroidery materials and styles, and merge it into her signature imagery of trees, leaves and creatures, as well as flat areas of pure color.
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Laura Owens in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Untitled(detail), 2003. Hand embroidery and silkscreen print on tussah silk. 69 1/2 x 50 inches. Photo: Aaron Igler |
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Born in Euclid, Ohio, Owens currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Owens received her B.F.A. from Rhode Island School of Design and her M.F.A. from California Institute for the Arts. Her recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition organized by Paul Schimmel at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2003, traveled to Aspen Art Museum, Milwaukee Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami) and the 2004 Whitney Biennial. Her works have been acquired by museums including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and the Guggenheim Museum, New York. Other recent exhibitions include Drawing Now: Eight Propositions, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2002); Painting at the Edge of the World, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2001); a solo exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (2001); and Examining Pictures: Exhibiting Paintings, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2000, traveled to UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles).
The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is the only museum of its kind, offering internationally renowned artists the resources to create new work in experimental materials. Artists come from all media-including sculpture, installation, video, painting, ceramics, and architecture-and use FWM's facilities and technical expertise to create works of art that they could not create on their own. Research, construction, and fabrication occur on-site in studios that are open to the public, providing visitors with the opportunity to see works of art from conception to completion. FWM's permanent collections include not only complete works of art, but also material research, samples, prototypes, and photography and video of artists making and speaking about their work. Access to the creative process provides visitors with a point of entry into understanding challenging works of contemporary art. FWM offers an unparalleled experience to the most significant artists of our time, students, and the general public.
FWM Exhibitions and Programs Admission: $3 for Adults, Children under 12 and FWM Members for Free. Group tours available by appointment.
Hours: Mon.–Fri. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat.–Sun., 12 noon to 4 p.m.
The programs of The Fabric Workshop and Museum are supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts; The Judith Rothschild Foundation; Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; National Endowment for the Arts; Miller-Plummer Foundation; LLWW Foundation; U. S. Institute of Museum and Library Services; Nimoy Foundation; The Arcadia Foundation; Claneil Foundation; Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro; Independence Foundation; The Philadelphia Cultural Fund; E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation; Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation; Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation; The Henry Luce Foundation matching gifts program; The Barra Foundation; LEF Foundation; Louis N. Cassett Foundation; Quaker Chemical Foundation; and the Board of Directors and members of The Fabric Workshop and Museum.
For more information, please contact Jeffrey Bussman, Assistant to the Directors, at 215-561-8888 ext. 229
jeff@fabricworkshopandmuseum.org.
For general information, call 215-561-8888.
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