Owens, Laura

A richly illustrated, expansive mid-career survey of the stand-out American artist’s pioneering and influential work

Published to coincide with a major exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art that travels to Dallas and Los Angeles, this book on the work of Laura Owens (b. 1970) features an incisive introduction by Scott Rothkopf, critical essays, literary texts, and short commentaries on a variety of subjects related to the artist’s broad interests, which range from folk art and needlework to comics and wallpaper.

Reflections by more than twenty of Owens’s fellow artists, collaborators, assistants, dealers, family members, and friends offer an array of perspectives on her work at different periods in her life, beginning with her high school years in Ohio and ending with her current exhibition. A rich trove of more than a thousand images, drawn from the artist’s personal archive and largely unpublished before now, includes personal correspondence, journals, academic transcripts, handwritten notes, source material, exhibition announcements, clippings, and installation photographs.

Together, all of these elements provide a rare and intimate look at how an artist might make her way in the world as well as how art gets made, movements take hold, and relationships evolve over time.

Each book includes a specially designed set of stickers that readers can use to customize their own cover.