Laura Owens

Laura Owens is among a select group of artists credited with the rebirth of American painting. She has developed a style all her own, moving from landscape to abstraction in energetic thick brushstrokes, fanciful childlike doodles, or sophisticated fine line drawings. "Each painting can act as a question," she says, and, demonstrating a wide and imaginative range, she constantly experiments and redefines her work. "Ultimately, you want to make the painting that you want to be with, not one that is constantly telling you everything it knows. Who wants to be with something or someone like that? It's more fun to be with someone who is willing to go out on a limb." This book is designed by Owens herself, and accompanies an exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Along with paintings from the show, it includes new drawings made exclusively for the publication, as well as several textile works from the museum's collection that inspired her during her residency of Spring 2000.