Katy Cowan’s hand-painted metal wall reliefs, drawings and paintings move easily between mediums, connecting to the physicality inherent in painting, drawing and sculpture. “I am completely interested in breaking down barriers of categorization,” Cowan states. Her transitions rely on a larger way of thinking that emphasizes alteration, repetition, and a conceptual emphasis on material choice. Katy Cowan embraces an open attitude towards studio practice: “I love incorporating accidents into my work and learning to react to them, to build off of them.” Recent works consider Northern California, where Cowan was based; they now consider Berlin, the city to which Cowan relocated in 2022. Poetry is another influence in Cowan’s work. As a visual artist, working in response to poetry, “takes time,” Cowan writes, “you have to step back, see your world in a new way, and let that change affect you.”
Katy COWAN (b. 1982, Lake Geneva, WI) received her BFA from University of Puget Sound (Puget Sound, WA) in 2004; and her MFA from Otis College of Art and Design (Los Angeles, CA) in 2014. Recent and upcoming solo and group exhibitions include "Painted Drawings" at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); Green Gallery (Milwaukee, WI); Miles McEnery Gallery (New York, NY); Haverkampf Leistenschneider (Berlin, Germany); and Meyer Riegger (Berlin Germany). Additional museum and gallery exhibitions include “Lines of Thought: Gestural Abstraction,” Berkeley Museum of Art and Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley, CA); “Selections from the Permanent Collection,” Milwaukee Art Museum (Milwaukee, WI); “From the Collection of Anonymous,” North Dakota Museum of Art (Grand Fork, ND); and “as the sun chases the unfurling fray,” Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA). Cowan’s work has been the subject of solo and group institutional exhibitions at Otis College of Art and Design (Los Angeles,CA); University of Puget Sound (Tacoma, WA); Lynden Sculpture Garden (Milwaukee, WI); Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (Madison, WI); Synchrotron Radiation Center (Stoughton, WI); Poor Farm (Manawa, WI). She has had solo gallery exhibitions at The Green Gallery (Milwaukee, WI); Document (Chicago, IL); Kate Werble Gallery (New York, NY); Fourteen30 Contemporary (Portland, OR). Cowan’s work is in public and private collections such as Art, Design & Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara,CA); (Milwaukee Museum of Art (Milwaukee, WI); Minneapolis Museum of Art (Minneapolis, MN); North Dakota Museum of Art (Grand Fork, ND); Lynden Sculpture Garden (Milwaukee, WI); Art in Embassies (Maputo, Mozambique); and Northwestern Mutual Insurance (Milwaukee, WI). Her work has been reviewed in Artforum, Los Angeles Times, Architectural Digest, Wallpaper*, Contemporary Art Review LA, Artnet and other publications. Cowan lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Philip Martin Gallery is open Wednesday - Saturday from 11-5. For additional images, or information please email info@philipmartingallery.com, or call 323-507-2037. Philip Martin Gallery is located at 3342 Verdugo Road, Los Angeles, CA 90065 in the Glassell Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.