Laura Owens is one of the most important contemporary artists in the USA. Born in Ohio and living in Los Angeles, she is deeply concerned with the questions of space in the image and the image in space. In this beautiful early work, the form of expression of space determines the image. A diverse 'open space' opens up. On the one hand, the space depicted seems confined; as if looking into a room. A yellow space opens up, defined by non-existent perspective boundaries. Only a few randomly placed objects define the idea of space. A playful red something made of circles in the upper left, in the top right corner there is a staircase-like structure. It is not clear what these things represent. At the bottom, the contour line of the green area defines the space, it has a blotchy red coin showing a female head on it, finally, a black circle in the yellow area in right appears like a hole. The green area could be a floor, but it could also be a spacethat is open at its bottom.

Laura Owens began her training on the US East Coast at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she received a very well-founded classical education. However, questions of contemporary art were not discussed; she describes her teachers as largely influenced by the Bauhaus. As a counterpoint and extension, she then moved to the California Institute of Arts in Valencia/Los Angeles, where she focused on Minimal and Conceptual Art. It is important to her to find a way to abstraction through her formal practice that creates an emotional and psychological connection.

Her themes are highly complex. Laura Owens makes an approach through examining space; to this days, she has continued to develop this topic in many different ways. The pastel tones of a girlish palette place this discussion in an airy, weightless setting. The paintings appear friendly, despite the fundamental question they address. Our painting was made at the beginning of the development. Her work received great recognition in the USA from early on. In 2003, she exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (CA), in 2006 at the Kunsthalle Zurich, and in 2007 at the Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, to name just a few. Most recently, in 2021, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland (OH), dedicated the solo exhibition “Laura Owens: Rerun” to the artist. [EH]