Laura Owens is an influential contemporary American painter. Known for her large-scale mixed media paintings, she incorporates a mix of art historical and cultural references in a wry yet sincere manner. Referencing anything from cartoon characters to an Henri Matisse painting, her work is consistently more concerned about making an interesting painting than fitting into a niche. Like her contemporary Charline von Heyl, Owens plays with the scope and versatility of her style, creating more aesthetic questions than answers. “I feel no shame about having paintings be as grandiose and ridiculous as possible,” she has declared. Born in 1970 in Euclid, OH, Owens studied at the Rhode Island School of Design before receiving her MFA from the California...