05/05/2026
Laura Owens layers world upon world in her five new etchings with Crown Point Press.
“Untitled (LO 1190)” begins with a simple aquatint background in purpley-pink, then builds; direct-to-plate etching shifting green to orange, spit bite wine brushstrokes carefully blocked around fuchsia spit bite circles and squares, and muted mauve sugar lift circles with soap ground. What reads as effortless is anything but.
The bright palettes and references from her paintings and past Crown Point projects carry through the entire series—decorative motifs drawn from Japanese prints, embroideries like those she photographed at Fondazione Antonio Ratti in Como, Italy, and her own earlier paintings and artist’s books. Textures like the “embroidery” created with seven silkscreen layers blur the line between handmade and mechanical; a tension at the heart of everything Owens makes.
Nothing here is accidental. Every color, placement, and object, whether lifted from a vintage wallpaper pattern or a past project revisited, was carefully, deliberately considered.
1. Laura Owens, “Untitled (LO 1190,” 2026
2. Detail from “Untitled (LO 1190)”
