Laura Owens

American · b. 1970

Laura Owens (b. 1970, Euclid, Ohio) is an American artist whose experimental approach has made her an influential figure in contemporary painting. Her work moves freely between abstraction and figuration, combining traditional painting with screenprinting, digital manipulation, collage, embroidery, found imagery, and three-dimensional elements. Owens draws from an unusually broad range of sources, including art history, decorative arts, craft, cartoons, typography, advertisements, children’s imagery, and personal experience. She frequently challenges conventional distinctions between painting, design, technology, and popular culture, creating complex surfaces in which physical brushwork and digitally generated imagery coexist. Her practice also extends to handmade books, wallpaper, sculpture, and large-scale installations, continually expanding the possibilities of what a painting can be.