Dallas is fortunate enough to have Laura Owens on exhibit from March 25, 2018 – July 29, 2018 at the DMA. Owens is one of the most influential artists of the generation. When Owens started painting twenty years ago she began experimenting with a multitude of unexpected mediums. To name a few she mixes buttons, sequins, and felt applique. Her work is ambitious as it involves a variety of techniques. The entirety of the collection is both cheerful and playful. One gallery combines Jorge Parado’s furniture with matching paintings contradicting the scholarly notion art and design cannot coexist. Owens gives dense visual imagery, but chooses to leave the majority of the works untitled leaving the title up to the viewer’s imagination which is both liberating and challenging. Owen’s suburb solo show is not to be missed.

Painting as décor: Laura Owens’s 1998 painting of a beehive, one of four made to match bedroom sets, with mirrors, by the artist-designer Jorge Pardo. Credit Vincent Tullo for The New York Times

Laura Owens, Untitled, 2013, acrylic, oil, and resin on linen, Collection of Meir and Katya Teper. Photo credit: DMA

Laura Owens, Untitled, 1997, oil, acrylic, and airbrushed oil on canvas, 96 × 120″. Photo Courtesy of the Whitney Museum