Owen Brown                          owenbrownartist.com  IG::owen_artist

Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.  The source of my practice is the world with all its beauty and confusion – nature, so alien and alluring, the social, equally baffling but no less wonderful, and the uncomfortable friction between that, and our internal interpretations.   Life eludes easy understanding or conclusion: what are we seeing when we really think about it and how did we miss it before?

Owen Brown was born in Chicago, trained as a classical musician, took his first art class at 23, and much of what he’s wanted to do since then has been paint.

Brown holds degrees from Yale College and the University of Chicago, and was a degree student at California College of the Arts. He lived for over 30 years in San Francisco, where he was represented by Meridian Gallery. He now lives in Minneapolis.

Brown has exhibited in juried shows and solo exhibits throughout the United States. His works have been acquired by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Nature Conservancy, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the Weisman Museum of Minneapolis, and can be found in collections in this country, Europe, and Asia. Brown has had residencies at Air Le Parc in France, and at the Land Institute in Kansas, where he created his first installation: “Units of Measure.”  He is represented nationally by Holly Hunt and Gallery 13, he shows regionally at Veronique Wantz and Grand Hand, and has collaborated artists of other disciplines, such as Emily Wolahan, poet, and Anat Shinar, choreographer.

His art has been reviewed or published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Vostos, the Dew Drop, the Exeter Bulletin, Aesthetica, The Land Report, A2, F3LL Magazine, Wild Roof Journal, Florence Contemporary, Beyond Words, Closed Eye, and Paragon. Meridian Gallery Press published a monograph of Brown’s work for the opening of his show “Ideasthesia.” His work was also included in the Society for Art Publications of the America’s final publication: “Trees of the Field.” he was an invitee at Art Prize Nine and invited to show at the now-cancelled 2020 Kochi Biennale, in Kochi, India.

Exhibits 2019 to present

2023

“I See Summer”
Gallery onetwentyeight
New York, New York
June 2023

Color
ARC Gallery
Chicago, IL
January – February 2023

2022

New Visions
Florence Contemporary
Florence, Italy
September 2022

The Summer Show
Veronique Wantz
Minneapolis, MN
August – September 2022

The Shmita Project
Sabes Center
Minneapolis, MN
June – August 2022

Dragonfly Gallery
The Portrait Exhibition
Chicago, IL
June – July 2022

“A Struggle For Freedom”
The Hallberg Art Center
Wyoming, MN
May – June 2022

“All Bullets Shatter”
Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy
Minneapolis, MN
May – July 2022

“Migration”
Gallerium Art Exhibitions
Toronto (on-line)
February 2022

“The Annuals”
Minneapolis Convention Center
Minneapolis, MN
January – December 2022

“Reflections”
Nordhaus Gallery
Minneapolis, MN
January – June 2022

2021

Friedli Gallery
The Inaugurals
Saint Paul, MN
October – January 2022

The Lofts Gallery
Minneapolis, MN
October – January 2022

“The Marks We Make”
The Curator’s Salon (online)
London
August – October 2021

“Nature Art”
International Online Art Collective
April – May 2021

Passages
Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport
Minneapolis, MN
January – December 2021

2020

New Perspectives in Drawing and Painting
St. Louis Art Guild
St. Louis, MO

Trees and Fields
Art Room Gallery, Sarajevo (online)

The Alternative Eye (solo show)
Grand Hand Gallery
Saint Paul, MN

Foot in the Door 5 (online)
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Mineapolis, MN

The New Not Normal
The Millyard
Minneapolis, MN

Justice
The Art Guild of Port Washington (online)
Long Island, NY

Seasons
Grey Cube Gallery (online)

Art in the Time of Quarantine
The Art Center Highland Park (online)
Chicago, IL

Treat Gallery (online)
New York, NY

Bridgewater Gallery
February – May 2020
Minneapolis, MN

“Beauty, like a dial-hand”: SOLO Exhibit
May, 2020 (postponed)
Isles Studio
Minneapolis, MN

2019 

Winter Salon
Veronique Wantz Gallery
Minneapolis, MN

Works on Paper
Webster Arts
St. Louis, MO

The Ghouta Triptych
Minneapolis Convention Center

“A Journey to Knowing”
Banfill Locke Art Center
Fridley, MN

Awards

Finalist, for
“often I am permitted to return to a meadow”
International Online Art Collective
“Nature Art” 2021

Press and Public Presentations 2019 to present

Unfortunately, Literary Magazine
February, 2023

Hole in the Head Review
Vol. 4 No. 1
Portland, Maine

The Spectacle Issue 12
Washington University at St. Louis
St Louis, MO
Winter 2023

Cheat River Review Issue 17
University of West Virginia
Morgantown, WVA
Winter 2023

Florence Contemporary
Volume 7
September 2022

The Song Between Our Stars
Volume 1, No.2
February 2022

The Book of Arts: Migration
Spring 2022

The Northeast Calendar
Northeaster
December 2021

Gallery Artist, The Dewdrop, September 2021  tinyurl.com/ytje856w

Featured Artist, Closed Eyes Open Magazine, Issue 4, Summer 2021 https://www.beyondwordsmag.com/

Featured Artist, Beyond Words Magazine, Issue 15, June 2021 https://www.beyondwordsmag.com/

Featured Artist, F3LL Magazine, Spring 2021 www.fl33.com

Featured Artist, Wild Roof Journal, Issue 7, March 2021 https://wildroofjournal.com/issue-7/

Artist’s Talk: Banfill-Locke Museum, June, 2019

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