Laura Owens
Laura Owens is an American Painter, educator, and gallery owner who emerged from the LA art scene. The Matthew Marks Gallery transformed both spaces to display her work in New York City for the first time in eight years.
As you enter the first space, the beaming light from the skylight enhances the calming and all-consuming pastel colors. The five canvases spread around the room are cohesive with the overall ambiance and tone created through the colors and lighting. Owens incorporates the impasto technique into her work to physically create a 3-dimensional presence of depth. The other pieces in this collection achieve a sense of depth through shading and layering while staying on the 2-dimensional plane.
In the space where the wall and ceiling meet, a print of tangled cords and wall fixtures wraps around the entire room. Owen's use of shadowing and color matching makes the print look shockingly real; it took multiple minutes, confusion, deep stares and a slightly strained neck to get a more precise look at the prints
The entire back wall is covered from ceiling to floor with a pastel floral print; one piece hanging on the wall consists of muted pastels to not take away from the yellows and pinks surrounding it. There are two camouflage doors flush with the wall; the lack of handles and the continuation of the print disguises them even further—one door is for entering and the other for exiting, creating a circular and revolving aspect.
The door leads into a much smaller second room which is encased ceiling to floor with a bright and pungent print; the light coming in from the skylight exaggerates the brightness of the colors. Owens creates the illusion of depth to an even greater extent in this space; not only does she continue to use the impasto technique, but she has also incorporated miniature doors. They blend perfectly into the wall and are rigged on a timer to reveal a hidden image.
Moving further through this room is another space, almost the size of a closet, with a video screen too high for you to see comfortably. It shows a film consisting of an interview that has been transformed into a conversation between two crows.
Moving next door to the second exhibit, upon walking in, you will find five tables, which all display a singular box wrapped in a different pattern with unique drawer handles and compartments. The boxes hold an array of trinkets in the compartments; some contain writings, children's picture books, sketchbooks, or planners, while others are left intentionally empty. The captivating part is that it's intended to be interactive; some drawers were left half-open, encouraging the viewer to peek inside, flip through the pages, and indulge in the luxury of touching art, which is frequently forbidden.
Centered on the very back wall of the room is an illusive wooden door that leads you into another space with all four walls wrapped with a pastel-layered print; this space feels much softer and gives the illusion that there is movement. In comparison to the first room, this space creates the sense that you were transported into another realm, almost connected to a dreamland. When looking back at the door from the inside, the wooden door is sunken into the wall, emphasizing the drastic difference in placement and energy—the duality between the modern and dream-like environments.
She creates an immersive and interactive experience through the all-consuming pastel rooms full of depth and the hand-made books and drawers for the public to manipulate. Her work strives to encapsulate the balance between the traditional and unconventional techniques of art—the layering of hundreds of hand-printed silkscreens. Owen's work exhibits “relations to external aspects such as architecture, interior space, landscape, time, geography, subject matter, style, and discipline.”
