Laura Owens, Visiting Artist Lecture 2026

Laura Owens gives a lecture at Skowhegan talking about her interdisciplinary practice which spans drawing, painting, video, sculpture, textile, and artist books. For Owens, it has always been important to create paintings that don’t have any one preferred point of view, but instead change depending on the way a work is framed and altered, or that can be arranged in different ways. Owens then talks about the installation and design of the rooms in which her paintings are hung. Owens is interested in the marginalia of a room, and how those details can be utilized to bring the viewer’s eye to places that are not the main focal point. Owens reflects on her use of decoration and pattern making as two concepts that she explores in her work. These concepts allow her to challenge what is or isn’t considered art, or what is considered too feminine, or too kitsch. Owens ends her lecture by reflecting on the friendships and the relationships one makes in the art world. Owens tells the participants that they don’t need many friends, solely a select few good ones. She encourages the participants to think about friendship as just as important as a studio or materials, as it will support them in their lives as artists.