My work explores cautionary tales once told to children, fairy tales that have settled into our collective imagination. We nod with recognition at the twist of fear in the child lost in the forest. We admire the cunning children use to see themselves safely away from the predator’s jaw. I explore the relationship between human and animals outside of the one we have with our domestic companions, our pets. I often use the forest as a setting for these possible narratives, and as a character itself. From European folk tales to contemporary literature, the forest remains in our imagination a place where the real and fabled intersect. My work is inspired by the poetry of William Butler Yates, the writing of Angela Carter, and the painting of Edward Hopper.
Artist Biography
After earning a BFA in illustration and a MFA in printmaking from Rochester Institute of Technology, Owen moved to Philadelphia where she has worked in paintings and book arts. She taught foundations at Tyler School of Art, and book arts at Drexel University. Her limited edition artist books held in numerous museum and library collections including The Metropolitan Museum, NYC, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The Getty Center, Library of Congress. She has exhibited paintings in Philadelphia, and at A.I.R Gallery in Chelsea and Brooklyn NY. More of her work can be seen at www.claireowenart.com. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband.
Education
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York BFA in Illustration, MFA Printmaking
Collection
Partial listing: Book work
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY The Gutenberg Museum, Mainz, Germany The Library of Congress, Washington, DC Yale University, Sterling Library, Art of the Book Collection, New Haven, CT National Gallery, Washington, DC Princeton University, Firestone Library, Princeton, NJ Harvard University, The Fine Arts Library and The Houghton Library, Boston, MA The New York Public Library, Spencer Collection and Special Collections, New York, NY Library of Congress, Washington DC The Getty Research Center for the Arts and Humanities, Santa Monica, CA Smith College Library Rare Book Room, Northampton, MA Columbia University, Lowe Library, New York, NY Trinity College, Watkinson Library, Hartford, CT Swarthmore College, McCabe Library, Swarthmore, PA Wellesley College, Special Collections, Wellesley, MA Temple University, Paley Library, Philadelphia, PA
Awards & Honors
2018 Annual Juried Exhibition, Cerulean Arts, Philadelphia, PA Honorable Mention
2013 Artist in Residence, Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venice, Italy
2006 Awards Painting Exhibition, Cheltenham Art Center, Cheltenham, PA Tobeleah Wechsler Memorial Award
2002 Independence Foundation Individual Artist Fellowship
2001 Fleisher Art Memorial Challenge Exhibition
1991 Artist in Residence, British American Arts Council, Travel Grant to the UK
1987 Philadelphia-Tainjin Artist Travel Grant, City of Philadelphia, Office Art and Culture
Professional experience
Teaching/Lecturing
2019 "Artists and Beasts: Why Animals?", Getty Museum Lecture Hall Part of a three-person discussion of how and why Artists use animals in their imagery
Artist Talk in conjunction with Bartram's Garden: In Words and Wood, with poet Beth Feldman Brandt, Chicago Botanical Garden, Chicago, IL
1987 - 2016 Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA Media Art Department: elective course for Junior and senior design students, "Bookmaking” Course explores the handmade book as an art and design format including binding structures and word/image/page relationships
2009 – 2015 Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA Foundation Department: 2D Foundation course for freshmen, fall and spring semester
Exhibitions
Solo
2008 - 2009 From under a darkened sky, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
1999 between shadowed walls, the forest tilts, Nexus Foundation for Today's Art, Philadelphia, PA
1997 1999 through a window in the forest wall, Nexus Foundation for Today's Art, Philadelphia, PA
Group
2020 Bartram's Garden: in Words and Wood, Chicago Botanic Garden, Lenhardt Library, Chicago, IL
2019 Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Drawings and Paintings with Poems by M. Castleberry, Bright Hill Press Word and Image Gallery, Treadwell, NY
Annual Juried Exhibition, Cerulean Arts, Philadelphia, PA Honorable Mention
2014 - 2017 Bartram Boxes Remix, Center for Art in Wood and Bartram's Garden, Philadelphia, PA
2012 `Rare Seeds, Creative Harvest, Lenhardt Library, Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicago, IL
2011 - 2012 The Decorated Book; Continuing a Tradition, Philadelphia Athenaeum, Philadelphia, PA Juried Exhibition, National
2011 The Book: A Contemporary View, Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE
2010 Building by the Book, Philadelphia Athenaeum, Philadelphia, PA Juried Exhibition, National
2008 Fantastical Imaginings, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington, DE Juried Invitational
2007 Made out of the Ordinary, National Members Exhibition, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2006 Awards Painting Exhibition, Cheltenham Art Center, Cheltenham, PA Tobeleah Wechsler Memorial Award
Art of the Book, Canadian Book Arts Guild, Toronto, Canada
2004 Art of the Book, Canadian Book Arts Guild, Toronto, Canada Invitational exhibition of fine press books
2003 Insomnia, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. National Invitational
2002 Challenge Exhibition 3, Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, PA
2001 Altered Egos, Borowsky Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Invitational Exhibition
