Frank Owen October 30 - November 30, 2004 Nancy Hoffman Gallery For the first time--in the artist's ninth exhibition at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery-Frank Owen focuses his show around one theme, one group of paintings on which he has worked over the past three years. Inspired by the beauty of Venetian glass beads, with a title referencing the act of threading beads together, this body of work is sumptuously rich, "over the top." In 1999 Owen created the first of his Venetian paintings willfully dipping his toe into the water of extravagance in paint. Thus began his most intense series of works, his most fully loaded paintings which verge on the outrageous.		Frank Owen, In Season-August, 2004, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 84 inches
Frank Owen, Threaders, 2002, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 60 inches		For Owen the Venetian paintings are the visual equivalent of the "pleasure principle; the extravagant deployment" of all the things he knows how to do in paint. Like all abstract paintings rooted either in cosmology or in the landscape, these paintings are somewhat referential. One cannot help but think of constellations whirling through space, planets spinning as the artist's orbs whirl through a field of multi color. As Owen says of these works: "this series makes me think about what painting is, what it can be, and what it can do." These are extreme physical statements in paint, over the top, intense works that are harnessed in space by the rigors of the artist's intellect and the structure he gives to each work.
Each piece in the series is titled Threaders with a suffix describing the palette of the piece, the materials, the related ores, such as Threaders: Sapphire and Copper, or Threaders: Beryl and Horn, or Threaders: Topaz and Garnet. Each piece is based on a color, which constitutes a background: blue, amber, red, brilliant yellow. And each piece is filled with circling orbs as if the artist sliced through a glass bead to reveal the magic, mystery and voluptuousness of its innards, which he alone can see and reveal to the world through his paint. While spontaneous in appearance the Venetian paintings are meticulously calculated and constructed before Owen embarks on the 8 to 12 weeks it takes to complete a 7 x 7 foot canvas. Complex arrangements of large "bead-like shapes" stacked one on top of another are luxurious heaps, and reference the art of collecting, be it beads, jewels or paintings.
While many abstract paintings are more tailored in format, more predictable in their construction, Owen's works are the opposite. They have an optical tactility, with a glass smooth surface. The physicality of paint is behind the surface due to Owen's unique approach to building a skin of many layers of paint "in verso;" the first layer is, in fact the top or surface layer of the finished painting; the final coat is the layer that touches the canvas. This is a beguiling and bewitching technique befitting the Venetian series.		Frank Owen, Threaders:Sapphire and Copper, 2004, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 84 inches
Frank Owen, Threaders:Topaz and Garnet, 2003, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 84 inches		Frank Owen, Threaders:Beryl and Horn, 2004, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 60 inches
Frank Owen was born in Kalispell, Montana in 1939. He received his B.A. and M.S. degrees from the University of California at Davis. He was awarded the University of California Regents Fellowship in 1967-68 and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in 1978-79 and 1989-90. He received the Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award, as well as a Faculty Development Grant from the University of Vermont.
Frank Owen, Between the Seasons V, 2003, acrylic on canvas, 82 x 60 inches		Frank Owen, Garden of Snarls I, 2004, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 60 inches
Frank Owen, Stillwater I, 2002-2003, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 34 inches		Frank Owen, Stillwater II, 2002-2003, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 34 inches
Frank Owen has been widely shown in this country at The Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut; The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock; The Art Institute of Chicago; Bayly Art Museum, University of Virginia, Charlottesville; The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Florida; Francis Colburn Gallery, University of Vermont, Burlington; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Decker Gallery, Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore; Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, Illinois; Lake Placid Art Center, New York; Madison Art Center, Wisconsin; Maier Museum of Art, Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Lynchburg, Virginia; Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson; Oklahoma City Art Museum, Oklahoma; Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida; Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and abroad at Berlin Kunstmuseum, Germany.
Frank Owen, Stillwater III, 2002-2003, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 34 inches		Frank Owen, Between the Seasons IV, 2001-2003, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 80 inches
Frank Owen is represented in numerous museum and public collections, among them The Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; Des Moines Art Center, Iowa; Elvehjem Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin; Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan; Grinnell College, Iowa; Ithaca College, New York; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Madison Art Center, Wisconsin; University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Nelson Art Gallery, University of California, Davis; Oberlin College, Ohio; The St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri; State University of New York, Plattsburg; Webster College, St. Louis, Missouri; Frederick R. Weisman Foundation of Art, Los Angeles; and Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
Frank Owen, Stillwater V, 2003, acrylic on canvas, 82 x 60 inches		Frank Owen, Stillwater IV, 2003, acrylic on canvas, 82 x 60 inches
Frank Owen resides in Keene Valley, New York.
Frank Owen Artists Page
Frank Owen Biography
Artists Exhibitions