Rachel Owens, The Sleepers I, 2004, mixed media. Photo courtesy the artist and ZieherSmith, New York

    Rachel Owens attended the Tyler School of Art/Temple University in Rome, Italy (1994), received her BA from the University of Kansas (1995) and her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1999). Owens utilizes a broad range of mediums varying from drawings and collages to film and mixed media sculpture.
Owens’ installations have addressed the merits and the repercussions of American political intervention, admitting recent actions as ones of aggression but also reflecting on the potential value of human resilience. In Overthrows (2006), the artist constructs a chaotic foxhunt with crudely molded plaster horses, dogs, foxes, and an upended rider. Her efforts protest the nation’s western power structure, scrutinizing American strength and how it seems to have turned into folly. The “Masters of the Hunt,” Condoleezza Rice and Dick Cheney, are shown on the front pages of newspapers that have been embellished with watercolor, which are mounted on the surrounding walls. Beyond the tumult, “trophy heads of the hunters hang from the wall [and] it is unclear if these pieces are intended as commemoration of victory or defeat.”

   Rachel Owens’ solo exhibitions include ZieherSmith, New York, NY (2006); Scatter-Hoarder, ZieherSmith, New York, NY (2005); and Rubble, Sara Nightingale Gallery, Watermill, NY (2005). Group exhibitions include Ionesco's Friends, Francosoffiantino Artecontemporanea, Turin, Italy (2006); Collage Party, ZieherSmith, New York (2006); No Apology for Breathing, Jack the Pelican Presents, Brooklyn (2005); Some Exhaust, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York (2004); Falling in Love with the Jailer’s Daughter, Project Green, Brooklyn, NY (2004); Brooklyn Underground Film Festival, DUMBO, Brooklyn (2003); Occurrences: The Performative Aspects of Video, Betty Rymer Gallery, Chicago, IL (2003); One Day, In a Day, Everyday, part of Sans, APEX art, New York (2002); New Homes for America Under Construction, Weather Records, Brooklyn (2002); Parallel Sensations, Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, Brooklyn (2002); Ship of Fools, The Frying Pan, New York, NY (2002); House, Wicker Park, Chicago, IL (1999); and Lagattuta, etc., Gallery 2, Chicago, IL (1998); and Madrid, Madrid Theater, Kansas City, Missouri (1998).

More Information:

http://www.ziehersmith.com/a_owens.html
http://www.artcal.net/event/view/1/2541
http://writing.upenn.edu/pepc/meaning/02/lusk-owens.html
http://mocoloco.com/art/archives/002745.php