About
Engaged in broad fields of practice from public art and traditional gallery work to activist based Community Theater, Owens tackles issues of hierarchical social conditions, environmental destruction, consumption and the points where these things intersect. Working sculpturally, performatively and socially, she uses material as meaning: what the sculpture is made of- is what the sculpture means- is what the sculpture does. Bottle shards, cardboard, coal, cut up humvees, and the dust of marble are all used to convey meaning, emotion, and action as they take on forms from porch to iceberg. Often with jobs beyond metaphor, the sculptures become stages, public seating, centers for protest and elevated vantage points.
Owens has been included in exhibitions both in the US and internationally including The X Krasnoyarsk Biennial, RU; Franco Soffiantino Contemporary, IT; Austrian Cultural Forum, NY; The Frist Museum, TN; Socrates Sculpture Park, LIC; and the New Museum Window, NY among others. Her solo museum project, The Hypogean Tip commissioned for The Housatonic Museum of Art in Bridgeport CT subsequently traveled to The Sugarhill Museum in NYC. She has had reviews and inclusion in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Art in America, Modern Painters, Flash Art and Triple Canopy Anthology and she has received grants from the Joan Mitchell, Pollack Krasner, and Harpo Foundations as well as a Cultural Humanitarian Grant from the US Consulate. Her work can be found in many collections in the US and abroad, among them; The Beth Rudin Dewoody Collection and The Bunker, The Pritzker Family, Berkshire Botanical Garden, Housatonic Museum of Art, Sprint Collection, Fidelity Collection and Donald Mullin JR.
Owens is Associate Professor of Art & Design and Chair of the Sculpture Department at SUNY Purchase College. She lives and works in Amenia, NY.
Email: raraowens@gmail.com
EDUCATION
MFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sculpture, 1999
BFA, University of Kansas, Painting, 1995
Tyler School of Art - Rome, IT, Fall 1994
SOLO, 2 PERSON and PUBLIC EXHIBITIONS
2023 Future Fossils, Untitled Miami Beach, 2 person booth with Louise Jones, Ziehersmith, Miami FL
The Hypogean Tip, Mary and Eliza Center for History and Culture, Bridgeport, CT - ongoing
2022 Real Fragile, Geary Contemporary, Millerton NY
The Hypogean Tip, Sugar Hill Museum of Art and Storytelling, NYC (through February 2023)
2021 Groundswell, Berkshire Botanical Garden, permanent public installation, Stockbridge, MA
2020 The Hypogean Tip, Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport CT
2019 Museum of the Cave of the Anthropocene, (with Esteban Ocampo Giraldo) Untitled, Miami Beach
2017 MOTHER, Ziehersmith, NYC
2016 Machinations, Boris Yeltsin Center, Yekaterinburg, RU
Inveterate Composition for Clare, Purchase College, Purchase NY (through 2021)
2015 Smile Always, Zieher Smith & Horton, NYC
2013 Inveterate Composition for Clare, Frist Museum of Art, Nashville
Trans-Cultural Express, Almost Antipodeans, BAM, Brooklyn NY
2012 Emergency Making Action, New Museum Window, NYC
Verdantly, Reed Krakoff, NYC
2011 Inveterate Composition for Clare, Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (UN park), NYC
2010 Props, Ziehersmith Gallery, NYC
2008 Harboring, Ziehersmith Gallery, NYC
2007 Wishing Well, Special Outdoor project NADA Art Fair, Miami
2006 Overthrows, Ziehersmith Gallery, NYC
2005 Rubble, Sara Nightingale Gallery at the Scope Art Fair, NYC
Scatter Hoarder, Ziehersmith (project Space), NYC
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Presence: 6 Sculptors, Mass Gallery, Purchase College, Purchase NY
2023 Think Pinker, Gavlak Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody)
The Garden, Turley Gallery Hudson, NY
2022 Northern Exposure, Bushel Gallery, Delhi, NY
Bless This Mess, The Post Office, Port Ewen, NY
Institutional Memory, Dolly Maas Gallery, Purchase, NY
2021 Taking Flight, Berkshire Botanical Garden, curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody, Stockbridge, MA
Art Path, Buck Hill Falls, Curated by Aaron Krach, Bucks County PA
2020 Edu, Hudson Valley MoCA , Peekskill, NY
Happy Hardcore, Miriam, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Ho Hum All Ye Faithful, Bravin Lee Programs, NYC
12x12, Black Ball Projects, Brooklyn NY
2018 Goulash, REAL Tinsel, Milwaukee, WI
Time Bomb, Watermill Center, Watermill, NY
Art Aspen, Aspen CO
Texas Contemporary, Houston TX
2017 Inaugural Exhibition, THE BUNKER, the collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody,
West Palm Beach FL (through 2019)
It's Happening: 50 Years of Public Art in NYC Parks, Central Park, NYC
Dead Horse Bay, Agnes Varis Center for the Arts, Brooklyn NY
Post-Election, September Gallery, Hudson NY (curated by Kate Gilmore and Kristen Dodge)
Double-Edged, Circuit 12, Dallas, TX
VOLTA 13, Basel
The Phillip Johnson Glass House, Summer Benefit Exhibition, New Canaan, CT
2016 Gut Rehab, Realty Collective, Brooklyn, NY (participant and organizer)
Untitled, Ziehersmith, 2 person booth, Miami FL
Brural, Temporary Storage, Brooklyn, NY (curated by Ilya Shipolovitch)
KCAC 40 Year Anniversary Exhibition, Kansas City MO
Lucky Draw, Sculpture Center, LIC, NY
2015 Alchemy, DC Moore Gallery, NYC (curated by Priscilla Vail Caldwell)
Artists at Work, Cantor Center, Stanford University, CA (Curated by Allison Gass)
12x12x12, Black Ball Projects, Brooklyn, NY
Fog, San Francisco, CA
Dallas Art Fair, Dallas, TX
2014 Untitled, Miami FL
2013 X Krasnoyarsk International Biennial, Krasnoyarsk, Russia (curated by David Harper and the
Prokorhov Foundaton with The Brooklyn Academy of Music
Collider, Ziehersmith, NYC (participated and curated, artists: Tommy Hartung,
Beth Campbell, Lucy Raven, Rachel Owens and Robert Heineken)
Creative Time Sandcastle Contest, Rockaway Beach (judged by Klaus Biesenbach)
2012 Next Wave Art, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY (curated by David Harper)
Permanent Collection, Nancy Margolies Gallery, NYC
Breadbox, ziehersmith pop-up, Nashville
Dealers Lounge, NYC
2011 BNA to Brooklyn, Nashville
2x2 for Aids and Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
Lucky Draw, Sculpture Center, Long Island City, NY
Watermill Center/ Robert Wilson Benefit, Watermill NY
Socrates Annual Benefit, Long Island City, NY
2010 Nineteen Eighty Four, Austrian Cultural Forum, curated by David Harper, Martha
Kirszenbaum, & David Komary, New York
Evading Customs_Milan, Le Dictateur, Milan (curated by Peter Russo and Lumi Tan)
Knock Knock Who's There? That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore, Armand Bartos Fine Art, New York
Whitney Art Party, NYC
2009 NADA/ART IN/VISIBLE SPACES, 395, Brooklyn, New York
Grand Reopening, Ziehersmith, New York
Evading Customs, Brown, London (curated by Peter Russo and Lumi Tan)
Lover, On Stellar Rays, New York (curated by Kate Gilmore and Candice Madey)
On From Here, video program, Guild and Greyshkul, New York (curated by Ana Wolovick and Mariah
Robertson)
I Thought our Worlds were the Same, Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee
Whitney Art Party, NYC
Lucky Draw, Sculpture Center, Long Island City, NY
2008 The New Black, Starr Space, Brooklyn, NY
Volta Fair, 3 artist booth, Ziehersmith Gallery, Basel
Wishing Well, NADA, Miami (outdoor installation special project)
Deiu Donne, benefit show, NYC
Sculpture Center Benefit Show, Long Island City, NY
2007 EAF Fellowship Show, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, New York
Sculpture Center Benefit Show, Sculpture Center, Long Island City, New York
Zoo Art Fair, 3 person booth, Ziehersmith Gallery, London
2006 Ionescoe’s Friends, FrancoSoffiantino Artecontemporanea, Turin, Italy
Collage Party, Ziehersmith, New York
Empathetic, Temple Gallery, curated by Elizabeth Thomas, Philadelphia, PA
2005 No Apology for Breathing, Jack the Pelican Presents, Brooklyn
Hissing of Summer Lawns, Sara Nightingale Gallery, Watermill, New York
2004 Some Exhaust, Lehman Maupin Gallery, New York (curated by Matthew Lusk)
Postcards from the Edge, Brent Sikkema Gallery, New York
Andy Warhol’s Living Room, Sara Nightingale Gallery, Watermill, New York
Falling in Love with the Jailer’s Daughter, Project Green, Brooklyn
2003 Fear of Flight, Sara Nightingale Gallery, Water Mill, NY
An Accord, Weather Records, Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Underground Film Festival, DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY
Talent Show, Project Green, Brooklyn
Occurrences: The Performative Aspects of Video, Betty Rymer Gallery, Chicago,
2002 One Day, In a Day, Everyday, part of Exhibition Sans, APEX art, New York
New Homes for America Under Construction, Weather Records, Brooklyn, NY
Parallel Sensations, Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY
Bellwether Summer Show, Bellwether Gallery, New York City, NY
Untitled Storefront, Weather Records, Brooklyn, NY
2000 Hit and Run 4, curated by Edward Winkleman NYC, NY
Project 1: The Green Room, Brooklyn, NY
Ship of Fools, The Frying Pan, New York City, NY
PUBLICATIONS/ REVIEWS/ INTERVIEWS
Owens, Rachel, Glass Quarterly, Reflection; History Channel: Working within Representation in a Public Art Project, Fall Issue 2022
Yerebakin, Osman, The Art Newspaper, Pick: Upstate Art Weekend, Real Fragile at Geary Contemporary July 2022
West, Tanner, Artnet News Editors Picks, Rachel Owens, Real Fragile, Geary ContemporaryJuly 2022
Lambert, Audra, Delicious Line, Review of Hypogean Tip, February 2020
Cuda, Amanda, Bridgeport Exhibit Invites People to Stand on the Art, CT Post, Feb 3 2020
Etty Yaniv, Interview with Rachel Owens on The Hypogean Tip, Art Spiel February 2020
Built Broken, Interview: Glassy Magazine, Shanghai Museum of Glass, Dec 2019
Clarity Hanes and Kate Hawes interview for Magic Praxis Podcast, #13 Rachel Owens, April 2018
Halle, Howard, “This Artist made Colorful Casts of the Oldest Living Thing in NYC”. TimeOut NY, April 5, 2017
Meier, Allison, “Casting New York’s Oldest Tree in Luminous Glass”, Hyperallergic April 5, 2017
Page, Andrew, “Rachel Owens’ majestic works in cast resin and glass explore globalization and endurance”, Urban Glass: Hotsheet, March 23, 2017
“Artist from Brooklyn Shows Yekaterinburg as Social Theatre Explores Power Structures”, Its My City, November 23, 2016
Meryl, Lizanne, “Donald Trumps Hair Parodied in NY Art Installation”, Artlyst, June 29, 2016
Page, Andrew, Feature and cover, GLASS, summer 2015
Modern Painter, review, May 2015
Andrew Page, "Complicit", feature interview and cover, Glass Quarterly, summer 2015
Sculpture Magazine, Commissions in Brief, April 2014
Sophie Pinkham, "Trans-Siberian Brooklyn", Bombmagazine.org, June 12, 2013
TransCultural Express fall programme”, Russia Beyond The Headlines, October 1,
reprinted in New York Times, Nov 17, 2013
Michelle Jones, “’Soft Edges’ pop-up by Rachel Owens”, The Tennessean, March 24, 2013
Artlog, "Artist Rachel Owens Ramps Up Reed Krakoff’s Street Cred", June 2012
"Rachel Owens", Sculpture Magazine, April, 2012 (image)
"Hit List", Modern Painters, December-January, 2011/12 (image)
“New Sculpture in Park,” Metro New York, November 17, 2011 (image)
Invalid Format: An Anthology of Triple Canopy volume 1, November 2011
Mary Johnson, "Artist Pays Tribute to Late Parks Employee in Sculpture" Dnainfo.com
October 17, 2011 (image)
Joe Nolan, "Art Crawl Plays Host to ZieherSmith," Nashville Scene, August 4, 2011
Jack Siegel, "Pictures of Pictures: September in New York," InterviewMagazine.com (image)
Scott Indrisnek, "Five Shows to See around the World," Artinfo.com, September 13, 2010
"The Weekly Ten," Artinfo.com, September 10, 2010
Zinta Lundborg, “N.Y. weekend,” Bloomberg, August 27, 2010
Lance Esplund, "NineteenEightyFour," The Wall Street Journal, August 21, 2010 (image)
Karen Rosenberg, "The Lights of Big Brother’s Eyes, Blinking in the City," The New York Times, August 20, 2010 (image)
"NineteenEightyFour," City Arts, August 3 - September 13, 2010 (image)
Michael Freund, "Eine Stadt sucht ihre Superkünstler," Der Standard, July 13, 2010 (image)
R.C. Baker, "Review: NineteenEightyFour," The Village Voice, June 8, 2010
Kris Wilton, "Have You Heard the One About the Urinal?," ArtInfo.com, April 2, 2010
Anthony Haden-Guest, "Can Art Be Funny,"The Daily Beast, March 11, 2010
Rachel Wolff, "See Here Now," New York Magazine, October 12, 2009
"The Wire," Art Lies, Issue 61, w/ Lucy Raven, Erin Sherrif, Adam Helms and Matthew Lusk, March 2009
"Rachel Owens: Reconstruction," Triplecanopy 4, November 11, 2008
"Goings on About Town: Rachel Owens," The New Yorker, Nov 10, 2008
Arte Aldia News 37, Mexico, April 8-June 8, 2008
Paul Laster, “Interview With Amanda Coulson,” Artkrush.com, Issue 85, May 28, 2008
Nicholas Hirshorn, “Site Goes from Trash to Treasure,” Daily News, January 31, 2008
"A Reassessment of Feminism," M/E/A/N/I/N/G #4, edited by Mira Schor and Susan Bee Artkrush.com, 2007
"The Approval Matrix: Brilliant & Highbrow," New York Magazine, September 24, 2007
Edith Newhall, "Empathy," The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 06, 2006
Roberta Fallon, "Feel the Pain," The Philadelphia Weekly, November 5, 2006
R.C. Baker, "Shortlist: Rachel Owens ," The Village Voice, June 8, 2006
Holland Cotter, "No Apology for Breathing," The New York Times, August 12, 2005
Stephanie Cash and David Ebony, "Front Page," Art in America, May 2005, (image)
Walter Robinson, "Weekend Updates," Artnet.com, March 29, 2005
C.C. McGurr, "Hodge Podge Collage," PaperMag, March 24, 2005
Merrily Kerr, "Some Exhuast," Flash Art, November - December 2004, image
Benjamin Carlson, Time Out New York, Sept 2, 2004
"Goings On About Town: Some Exhaust," The New Yorker, Sept 6, 2004
Kim Levin, "Critic’s Pick: Some Exhaust," Village Voice, September 2004
"Arts and Leisure Guide," The New York Times, August 15, 2004, image
Helen A. Harrison, "Fear of Flying," The New York Times, November 2, 2003
"Rachel Owens and Matthew Lusk: After School Special," edited by Mira Schor and
Susan Bee M/E/A/N/I/N/G #2
Art V-8 Chicago, Chicago Reader, May 9, 1998
Alice Thorson, "Figuring the Body," The Kansas City Star, November 17, 1997
AWARDS/ GRANTS
nominee, Anonymous Was a Woman, 2020
Eugene Grant Research Award, Purchase College Foundation, 2019
Cultural Humanitarian Grant US Embassy Moscow, 2016
Faculty Research Grant, Purchase College, 2016 and 2017
nominee, Tiffany Foundation Grant , 2015
Joan Mitchell Emergency Grant, 2012
Foundation for Contemporary Art, Emergency Artist Grant, 2011
Pollock Krasner Grant, NYC, NY 2008-09
Harpo foundation Grant for Socrates Sculpture Park, Coconut Grove, FL 2007
EAF Fellowship Award, Socrates Sculpture Park, 2007
nominee, Rema Hort Mann Award, 2003
G.K. Baum Travel Grant, travel to England and France, June 2002
Graduate Student Grant, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL 1997-99
Top Jurors Award, River Market Regional Exhibition, Kansas City, MO 1995
Richard Hollander Family Foundation Award, Kansas City, MO 1994
PANELS, LECTURES, WORKSHOPS, PERFORMANCES
Geary Contemporary, performances and actions during solo exhibition, Real Fragile, Millerton NY July 2022
ChaNorth, Visiting artist and critic, Pine Plains, NY July 2021
Artists Talk w/ Maisa Tisdale, Artists talk and walkthrough history lesson surrounding the Freeman houses and history of Bridgeport CT. Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport CT 2020
Brainstorming Bridgeport, Housatonic Museum of Art and HCC, Brideport CT Introduction of upcoming project and brainstorming session for possible projects involving the community. This was a For Freedoms 50 State Initiative Event. 2018
Performing Politics, Neuberger Museum, Purchase NY For Freedoms Panel discussion led by Eric Gottesman with Hakan Topol, Andrea Thome, Rachel Owens and Jonah Westerman, 2018
Central Park NYC, Performances programmed as a part of It's Happening and the initial launch of my project Life on the Other Side of a Cracked Glass Ceiling, 2017
ZieherSmith, New York Artist talk/ exhibition walk-through various groups, 2017
Yeltsin Center, Ekaterinburg, RU Artist Talk and Workshops, 2016
Urban Glass, Brooklyn NY Artist Talk, 2015
Whitney Museum of Art Young Contemporaries Art Walk: Rachel Owens and Cordy Ryman, 2015
Hunter College MFA Program, NYC Visiting artist, studio visits, artist talk, 2013
Krasnoyarsk Museum, Krasnoyarsk, RU Artist talk and workshop, 2013
The Frist Museum of Art, Nashville TN, Artists talk and conversation w/ Rachel Owens and Will Ryman moderated by Mark Scala, 2013
The Institute for Wishful Thinking, an examination of social practices moderated by Maureen Connor, Momenta Art, Brooklyn April 22, 2011
Public Art Panel, moderated by Kelly Pajek (percent for Art NYC), Crozier, NYC June 23, 2011
Make a Break Theater Project, A Theater of the Oppressed project in conjunction with the exhibit Props, co-facillitated with Candice Sering, NYC Workshops: August- September and final forum performance September 15, 2010
Nineteen Eighty Four- Huxley vs Orwell, moderated by David Harper, Austrian Cultural Forum, NYC, 2010
Department of Art, University of the South, Sewanee, TN February 18, 2005
COMMISSIONS
The Hypogean Tip, Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, CT
Life on the Other Side of a Cracked Glass Ceiling, NYC Parks, 50 year celebration, Central Park, 2017
Machinations, Yeltsin Center, Performance commissioned by US Consulate Moscow, 2016
Almost Antipodeans, X Krasnoyarsk Biennial, commissioned by BAM and Michael Prokhorov Foundation, 2013
Skin (US), for Next Wave Art, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 2012
Inveterate Composition for Clare, NYC Parks Department, Temporary Sculpture Program, 2011
Privet, for the exhibition Nineteen Eighty-Four, Austrian Cultural Forum, 2010
Wishing Well, outdoor installation, NADA Art Fair, Miami 2007
Groundswell, Socrates Sculpture Park, 2007