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6am

Catherine Owens 

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Oliver Sears Gallery is pleased to announce ‘6am’, an exhibition of new works by Catherine Owens. 

Nineteen paintings and two site-specific drawings combine to give the viewer an immersive experience. Merging drawing and painting with LED lighting technology and audio, Owens creates an environment that suggests the transition and passage of time. This theme is at the core of a series of projects Owens is working on that address migration (from the perspective of émigré and immigrant). No longer just a familiar Irish story for her, but one of urgent importance in the context of today’s global displacement and resettlement. By considering the light of sunrise and sounds of the dawn chorus, the cycle of absence and return is mirrored by the inescapable churn of a single morning.

The reverse paintings on paper are complex in texture and pattern yet reflect quiet and simplicity. The combination of LED lighting internally in some of the works and targeted spot lights externally on others emit hues of warmth and colour, creating a welcome space for the viewer. ‘6am’ embraces technology and classical painting in a single artistic endeavour that conflates space, place and timing.

Owens, who earlier this year exhibited a new body of LED works at Kustera Projects in Brooklyn New York, has also shown at the Feldman Gallery New York, Morris Healy Gallery, New York, Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan, the Kerlin Gallery and the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, Ireland. She was Creative Director of key visual content for the band U2 on five World Tours, and in collaboration with the band, directed and was a producer of the seminal 3D film ‘U23D’ in 2008. Made for IMAX theatrical release in and shot in South America, its creation spearheaded a series of major technological breakthroughs in 3D filmmaking.  The New York Times hailed it as “The first IMAX movie that deserves to be called a work of art.” As an award-winning artist at the forefront of digital technology, her work has allowed her to develop a sophisticated language, combining her studio practice with advancements in new technologies. 

Owens lives and works in New York City and has a studio in the Black Water Valley near Lismore in Co. Waterford.