Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5
Ruth OwensSee Me Slopeside2021
2021
About the Item
ARTIST STATEMENT
RUTH OWENS graduated in 2018 with an MFA from the University of New Orleans after leaving her medical practice of 25 years. She is represented by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, and belongs to the artist collectives: A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn and “The Front” in New Orleans.
Artist residencies include the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, MA in 2019, the Vermont Studio Center in 2018, the Studios at MASS MoCA in 2021, and The Joan Mitchell Center 9/20 until 2/21. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Addison Gallery of American Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art. Notable solo shows include “Good Family,” 2019, The Front Gallery; “Identity Theft,” 2018, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery; “Baby Love,” 2018, University of New Orleans Gallery; “Conspiracies,” 2017, Barrister’s Gallery, New Orleans; and “Stepin’ Out,” 2016, Xavier University Chapel Gallery, New Orleans. Ruth has participated in group exhibitions at the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Contemporary Art Center of New Orleans, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Addison Gallery of American Art, and the New Orleans Film Festival, 2019.
The artist says of her work...
“Debbie Do Dallas” read the handwritten label on a plain black VCR tape tucked in amongst my father’s collection of westerns and adventure movies. Viewing those words as a teenager caused me untold anguish, equally because of the grammatical failure to make subject and verb agree, as the thought of my father watching sexually explicit content. This intersection of personal familial relationships, and the cultural context that leads to inequality of resources, such as access to educational opportunities between those of African and European descent, is what underlies the impetus for my work.
Straddling the divide between Teutonic and African ancestries, my concerns are more relevant than ever in our current polarized political milieu, and I attempt to tell my story from an intensely personal viewpoint. An approach to art making that includes both the very personal familial history and the interaction of that family with dominant cultural forces defines the crux of my work. It is with merciless candor that I bring untold family secrets, infidelities, addiction, and mental illness to the fore. Each painting is rooted in a pivotal memory from childhood and represents a psychologically intense moment of personal influence, set in a culture of racial divide.
Negotiating psychological and cultural tensions is my driving force, and my communicative tools lie in a very expressive and organic method of painting. The surfaces are scratched, left bare, glopped on, and dripped on for a mood consistent with the emotive content of the image. The surface not only becomes a metaphor for the vulnerability of our physical bodies, but it further represents an attempt to embrace a fluidity of racial identity in order to subvert the prescribed identity dictated by our dominant culture. A Gerhardt Richter-like scrape of facial features denies placement of a figure within the confines of a preordained racial construct.
Although we were not wealthy, my parents purchased a super-eight camera to record the now requisite footage of our childhood birthday parties and backyard antics in the 1960s and 1970s. This footage has proved to be an extremely valuable resource in mining my psychological past, and clips from these films have served as reference images for my paintings. However, instead of faithfully copying the images in a straightforward representational manner, I have attempted to heighten the emotional and visual impact by use of collage, color alterations, and compositional changes.
- Creator:Ruth Owens (1959, American, German)
- Creation Year:2021
- Dimensions:Height: 13 in (33.02 cm)Width: 13 in (33.02 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Framing:Framing Options Available
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New Orleans, LA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU10528971592
About the Seller
5.0
Gold Seller
These expertly vetted sellers are highly rated and consistently exceed customer expectations.
Established in 1998
1stDibs seller since 2015
139 sales on 1stDibs
Typical response time: <1 hour
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New Orleans, LA
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 3 days of delivery.
More From This SellerView All
- See Me, Countryside, studyBy Ruth OwensLocated in New Orleans, LAFramed Dimensions: 13h x 10.25w in RUTH OWENS graduated in 2018 with an MFA from the University of New Orleans after leaving her medical practice of 25 years. She is represented by ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
MaterialsPaper, Casein, Pencil
- Sunday SisterBy Ruth OwensLocated in New Orleans, LARUTH OWENS graduated in 2018 with an MFA from the University of New Orleans after leaving her medical practice of 25 years. She is represented by the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, and belongs to the artist collective, “The Front,” both in New Orleans. Owens’ work is concerned with contributing to and preserving the black archive, and she uses personal super-8 film references in her painting and video art. Artist residencies include the Joan Mitchell Center, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Studios at MASS MoCA. She is slotted to attend the International Studio and Curatorial Program in NY in 2023. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Ackland Art Museum at UNC-Chapel Hill, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Dale Center for the Study of War and Society, and 21c Museum. The artist says of her work… In the sixties, my father was stationed at a military base in the deep South for several years. Although it was prescribed by law, our mixed race...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
MaterialsPaper, Ink, Casein
- Court LadiesBy Ruth OwensLocated in New Orleans, LAFramed Dimensions: 11.25h x 10w in RUTH OWENS graduated in 2018 with an MFA from the University of New Orleans after leaving her medical practice of 25 years. She is represented by the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, and belongs to the artist collective, “The Front,” both in New Orleans. Owens’ work is concerned with contributing to and preserving the black archive, and she uses personal super-8 film references in her painting and video art. Artist residencies include the Joan Mitchell Center, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Studios at MASS MoCA. She is slotted to attend the International Studio and Curatorial Program in NY in 2023. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Ackland Art Museum at UNC-Chapel Hill, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Dale Center for the Study of War and Society, and 21c Museum. The artist says of her work… In the sixties, my father was stationed at a military base in the deep South...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
MaterialsPaper, Casein
- DevotionBy Ruth OwensLocated in New Orleans, LAFramed Dimensions: 13h x 11w in RUTH OWENS graduated in 2018 with an MFA from the University of New Orleans after leaving her medical practice of 25 years. She is represented by the...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
MaterialsPaper, Casein
- Adieu, Gaugin, studyBy Ruth OwensLocated in New Orleans, LAFramed Dimensions: 16.25h x 11w in RUTH OWENS graduated in 2018 with an MFA from the University of New Orleans after leaving her medical practice of 25 years. She is represented by ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
MaterialsCasein, Paper
- Rest StopBy Ruth OwensLocated in New Orleans, LAFramed Dimensions: 13h x 9.50w in RUTH OWENS graduated in 2018 with an MFA from the University of New Orleans after leaving her medical practice of 25 years. She is represented by t...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
MaterialsPaper, Casein
You May Also Like
- Carpathian AncestorLocated in Washington, DCOne of a kind painting by Noche Crist (1909- 2004). Noche Crist was an American artist born in Romania. Painting is on casein paint on plaster on board. Catalogue of a postumous retr...Category
1960s Outsider Art Figurative Paintings
MaterialsCasein, Plaster, Wood
- Water Hunters ( Cowboys in the Old West )By Stevan DohanosLocated in Miami, FLMeticulously rendered account of three prospectors trying to rustle up some water before they can dig up some gold. Magazine Illustration of the Old West, American West, Cowboys Casein on board, Western / Frontier Art...Category
1950s American Realist Figurative Paintings
MaterialsCasein
- A Lion Mangled Me - A Man Eating LionLocated in Miami, FLUsing brilliant compositional devices and late afternoon light, Frank McCarthy captures a man at the precise moment before death. The scene is staged wi...Category
1960s American Realist Animal Paintings
MaterialsCasein, Board
- Agnieszka And The Cat - Contemporary Figurative Portrait Painting, Large FormatLocated in Salzburg, ATAnna Malinowska is a painter, draftswoman and graphic artist, born in 1965. She graduated from the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts in 1991 in the studio of Prof. Kiejstut Bereźnicki. She...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings
MaterialsTempera, Cotton Canvas
- Many-Worlds Interpretation (H.C.H.P)By Colin HuntLocated in New York, NYLooking at a painting by Colin Hunt is like watching someone pass through a hole in our consciousness. As the landscape refracts through the sitter’s absence and fills that emptiness...Category
2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings
MaterialsEgg Tempera, Panel
- Robe 2By Fides BeckerLocated in Morongo Valley, CA'Robe 2' 2005, Acrylic and Egg Tempura on Canvas and Cotton Canvas, 210 x 160 cm The leading theme of the artist’s interventions is the staging of temporality, transience, and chang...Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Figurative Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Cotton Canvas, Acrylic, Egg Tempera
