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. Katy Cowan’s work was the subject of a solo exhibition at Miles McEnery
Gallery in New York in March 2023. Cowan was recently featured in the group exhibitions,
“Winter Salon” at Haverkampf Leistenschneider (Berlin, Germany), “Pocket Universe,” at
Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) and “Soulscapes,” curated by Uwe Henneken at
Meyer Riegger (Berlin Germany). Recent 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 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.