Katy Cowan: glow like stone

Philip Martin Gallery is pleased to present, "glow like stone," an on-line exhibition of new works by Berlin-based artist Katy Cowan.

A move from Berkeley to Berlin places Katy Cowan in new surroundings. She sees flowering willow trees seemingly as large as mountains; the dazzling reflections across the ponds in the parks; and a multitude of carved stone sculptures, scattered throughout the city, well worn from years of exposure to the elements.

Cowan asks, "How can one combine a multitude of experiences onto one surface and find a way to seize that depiction?” Her works on paper use spray paint, oil paint, watercolor, colored inks, and graphite applied in base layers. She then rubs the surface of the paper with graphite, revealing its texture and finding new possibilities. "Forms emerge, directions shift, shapes call out," she notes.

In her recent solo exhibition at Philip Martin Gallery, “as the sun chases the unfurling fray, “ Katy Cowan presented California seascapes painted with the feeling of the setting sun. These works conjured kelp and seaweed, ripples and riptides, the light over the ocean viewed through the mist of a crashing wave. Cowan's Berlin works evoke candle-light, history, and human presence. The city "glows like stone," she writes. Her new works-on-paper channel this feeling, and invite us to experience it for ourselves.

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. In 2023, Cowan's work will be the subject of a solo exhibition at Miles McEnery Gallery (New York, NY). Recent exhibtions 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 exhibtions 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 Tuesday - Saturday from 10-5. For additional images, or information please email info@philipmartingallery.com, or call 310-559-0100. Philip Martin Gallery is located at 2712 S. La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90034 in the Culver City area of Los Angeles between Venice Blvd. and Washington Blvd., just south of the 10 Freeway.