Ruth Owens

Godspeed (after Ivan Bilibin), study

2024

Ruth Owens was born to a young German woman and a Black serviceman from Georgia. The nomadic military lifestyle of her childhood was complicated by restrictions to mixed families in many communities and laid the basis for the formation of her cultural identity. She will graduate with a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of New Orleans after quitting her medical practice of over 25 years. She will continue her artistic pursuits showing with Jonathan Ferrara Gallery of New Orleans, and participating in an artist collective called The Front located in that city’s St. Claude art corridor. Further, the well-respected Vermont Studio Center awarded Ruth an artist residency, which she will attend in July 2018. Notable solo shows include “Baby Love” in 2018 at the University of New Orleans Gallery, “Conspiracies” in 2017 at Barrister’s Gallery in New Orleans, and “Steppin' Out” at Bellarmine Chapel Gallery in 2016. Ruth Owens has also participated in numerous group shows including the “Currents, 2018,” at A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, “Honey Trap,” at The Front Gallery, New Orleans, LA, “Image and Text” 2017, at Site: Brooklyn Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, “LA Contemporary, 2015” at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, “Contemporary Artists Respond to the New Orleans Baby Dolls,” 2015, at the McKenna Museum of African American Art, “Imago Mundi: New Orleans: Repatriation,” Prospect.3 Adjunct at the New Orleans Museum of Art, “True Colors,” 2014, at the Ashé Cultural Arts Center, and “NOLA NOW: The Human Figure,” 2012 at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans.