Viewing the paintings of Laura Owens is a happily engulfing experience. You are gently asked to consider, and re-consider, all possible angles in our wider periphery vision: inside/outside, upside down, open/closed, near/far. Her cool and detached constructions, where noisy questions about perspective, spatial definition, and representation ricochet across quiet canvases, have fun with our logical desire for a more scientific scrutiny.
One of the paintings in this exhibition is a view through the receding doorways of the central gallery of a museum. The physical space is economically mapped out in large, flat areas of colour with minimal detail. In each room, edges of paintings can be glimpsed (the jewels in this composition being where the eye would naturally concentrate), and only here is the paint intensively worked.
Zooming in and out of view is our relationship within and comprehension of the 2-D visual plane. Owens is unafraid to keep one eye on Barnett Newman and the other on David Hockney as she streers us on a well thought-out route through the contradictions of our visual readings.
Laura Owens lives and works in Los Angeles. She has had solo exhibitions at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in New York and Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica. This is her first exhibition in the UK.
For further information please contact the gallery at +44 (0)20 7493 8611 or press@sadiecoles.com