Owen Brown By Owen Brown
Artist’s Statement
Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking. The source of my practice is the world with all its beauty and confusion—nature, so alien and alluring, the social, equally baffling but no less wonderful, and the uncomfortable friction between that, and our internal interpretations. Life eludes easy understanding or conclusion: What are we seeing when we really think about it, and how did we miss it before?
Owen Brown was born in Chicago, trained as a classical musician, took his first art class at 23, and much of what he’s wanted to do since then has been to paint.
Brown holds degrees from Yale College and the University of Chicago, and was a degree student at California College of the Arts. He lived for over 30 years in San Francisco, where he was represented by Meridian Gallery. He now lives in Minneapolis.
Brown has exhibited in juried shows and solo exhibits throughout the United States, Europe, and Canada. His works have been acquired by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Nature Conservancy, the Minnesota Historical Society, the University of Chicago, and the Weisman Museum of Minneapolis, and can be found in collections in this country, Europe, and Asia. Brown has had residencies at Air Le Parc in France, and at the Land Institute in Kansas, where he created his first installation, “Units of Measure.” He is represented nationally by Holly Hunt and Gallery 13, he shows regionally at Veronique Wantz and Grand Hand, and he has collaborated with artists of other disciplines, such as Emily Wolahan and Jason Lord.
You can find him on Instagram @owen_artist and at owenbrownartist.com.
Why we chose this piece: Owen’s art resonated with us a lot; this series is such an entire mood with variations on a theme without being repetitive. He uses materials in a really interesting way, and we enjoyed his use of the diptych/triptych format and the varying amounts of negative space between sections. This series is just really fun to look at.
