Catherine Owens is an Irish artist living and working in New York City. Her work is largely installation based, originating from ideas that evolve through drawings, painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, sound, LED and 3D technology and Virtual Reality.
Using the technical and production knowledge gained while collaborating on large scale global projects over the last 20 years, Owens has incorporated this information into her current work, creating a series of LED based light works that seamlessly bring technology and mark making together.
In June 2018 Owens showed a new body of Light Paintings at Oliver Sears Gallery in Dublin, Ireland.
From November 2017 to January 2018 she exhibited a series of LED light based Triptych Paintings and a 360° soundscape at Kustera Projects in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Owens has exhibited works at 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.
As well as her own solo art practice Owens is known for her collaborative work with the band U2. As creative director of screen imagery for animation, film and video, she created their visual content for five world tours from 1992 – 2010
She directed and was a producer on the first digital 3D film (U23D) made for IMAX theatrical release in 2008. 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.”
Other collaborative projects include directing visual content and animation for the San Francisco based group Kronos Quartet and for the Chinese Pipa player Wu Man, whose Carnegie Hall debut featured an intricate 20-minute animated series of watercolour, washed paintings.
Owens has attended four Lincoln Center Director's Labs in New York as a guest artist and was a keynote speaker at SIGGRAPH in 2008, where she spoke about working in 3D under the title; Giving Technology Emotion: From the Artist's Mind to "U23D"
In April 2010 she traveled to India to make a 3D documentary about Kumbh Mela, the largest spiritual gathering in the world that takes place once every 12 years.
And in 2012 she shot her third 3D film project, a documentary on the Irish Dancer Colin Dunne - It was broadcast on the BSkyB 3D and the Sky Arts network in November 2012. The Theatrical version was launched at the Jameson Dublin Film Festival in February 2013.
In 2014 she launched "Field Prints" a set of Intaglio prints representing impressions of the vistas found close to her studio in the Blackwater Valley, Co. Waterford, Ireland.
Her recent body of work expands upon the use of LED Lighting technology, merging it with drawing, painting and sculpture.
A large-scale set of her LED Drawings are installed in the lobby of the renovated Capitol Theater in Port Chester New York.
Owens has spoken widely about the interaction between Art and Technology, speaking on this subject in 2018 at the Ulster Museum in Belfast, Ireland, in 2017 at INSPIREFEST, Dublin Ireland, at ‘The Art Of VR” Sotheby’s, New York and in 2016 at ‘VR On The Lot’ at Paramount Pictures, Los Angeles.
Biography
Resume
Resume
Born in Dublin Ireland. Lives and works in New York City
Education
1979/82 BA Honors degree in Fine Art Painting
Belfast College of Art and design, Northern Ireland 1978/79 Foundation
Dun Laoghaire School Of Art (IADT) Dublin Ireland
Solo exhibitions
2018 6am - Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin Ireland
2017/18 SLIVER - Kustera Projects, Red Hook, Brooklyn
Solo exhibitions (early/relevant)
2002 He Left Quielty - Helix Center, Dublin Ireland
1999 IN - Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art,
Dublin Ireland
1998 Self-Address Triskel Arts Center, Cork Ireland
1994 Balls - Project Arts Center, Dublin Ireland
1988 Kerlin Gallery, Dublin Ireland
Group Exhibitions/Fair
2015 New York IFPDA Print fair Park Ave Armory, New York
2015 Multiplied Print Fair Christies, UK
2015 Original Print Fair Royal Academy, UK
2015 Fine Print Fair Portland, USA
2015 Fine Print Fair San Francisco, USA
2014 Ink Miami Art Fair, USA
2012 Eureka! Blue Leaf Gallery, Dublin Ireland
2012 Dubh - Dialogues in Black, Oliver Sears Gallery,
Dublin Ireland
2011 Dubh - Dialogues in Black American Irish Historical
Society, New York USA
2010 Dieu Donne, Drawing show, New York
2008 Dieu Donne, Drawing show, New York
Group Exhibitions (early/relevant)
2001 Environmentally Concerned (2) Bronx River Arts
Center, New York
2000 Environmentally Concerned, Nathan Cummings
Foundation, New York
1999 Weaving The World, Yokohama Museum Of Modern
Art, Yokohama, Japan
1998 Gramercy Park International Contemporary Art
Exhibition, Gracie Mansion Gallery, New York
1996 L’Imaginaire Irelandais, Le Confort Moderne Gallery,
Poitiers, France
Incestuous, Thread Waxing Space, New York
The New Museum for Contemporary Art, New
York
Group Show, White Columns, New York
1995 Wish You Were Here, Little John Contemporary
Gallery, New York
Morris Healy Gallery, New York
White Columns, New York
1993 UNTITLED (14) Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York
Markets Of Resistance, White Columns, New York
Fields Of Vision Trout Gallery, Dickinson College,
Carlisle, PA
Sites Of Intolerance, MoMA PS1, Long Island City
1992 The Curio Shop, Thread Waxing Space, New York
1990 CHINA June 4, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New
York
Commissions
2018 LED Paintings, Installation, New York
2014 LED Paintings (private) Ireland/USA
2012 LED Drawings ‘CORE’
Permanent Installation commission for 3 large scale
LED drawings for the lobby of the Capitol Theatre
Port Chester, New York.
Film/Video Content/Collaboration
2012 Colin Dunne – Sculpting Space
Director/producer, 3D film Documentary, SKY TV, UK
2010 Kumbh Mela, Director/producer, 3D film
/11 Documentary (in post production) largest Spiritual
Gathering in the world, India
1992-2010
U2, five world tours, Zoo TV, PopMart, Elevation
Vertigo, U2 360, Director/producer for video and
film screen content
1998/2000/2004/2008
Lincoln Centre Theatre, Directors Lab
Invited as a multi disciplinary artist, New York
2008 U23D film, Director/producer
The first live action 3D award winning film to be made
in Hollywood, premiered at Cannes and Sundance film
festivals.
2008 U2 video, Original Of The Species, Director/producer,
(Nominated for two VH1 Music video awards)
2005 Wu Man, Pipa Player, Director/producer, 20-minute
video animation for screen, Carnegie Hall, New York
2004 Kronos Quartet, Director/producer of video content
for Kronos Quartet's 3Oth anniversary ‘Visual Music’
Barbican Centre UK, Carnegie Hall New York
2002 U2, Super Bowl Halftime, Director screen imagery
9/11 tribute, broadcast on all major TV net works
Public Speaking
2018 U2 Conference, Belfast Ireland
(Popmart tour 1998. Where LED screen technology began)
2017 Inspirefest, Annual female driven technology
conference, Dublin, Ireland
2017 The Art Of VR Sotheby’s VR conference, Sotheby’s,
New York
2014 CES (consumer electronics show Las Vegas) 3D
technology, Nevada
2013 Lodz 3D Film Festival, ‘Art and
technology in 3D’ Poland
2013 Toronto International Stereoscopic 3D conference,
Canada
2012 Lewis Glucksman Gallery 'Seeing' combining art
and technology, University College Cork, Ireland
2011 Toronto International Stereoscopic 3D conference,
Keynote Speaker, Canada
2010 Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences
'Getting Perspective III - Exploring the
Craft of 3D Movie Technology,' Los Angeles
2010 International 3D Society, Directing for 3D, Sony
Pictures, Los Angeles
2008 Siggraph technology conference, keynote speaker
Giving Technology Emotion: From the Artist's Mind to
"U23D"
Residencies
2016 Artist in residence, PRG lighting technology, Belgium
2015 Artist in residence, The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Co
Monaghan Ireland
1999 Artist in residence, Sirius Project, Cobh Yacht Club,
Cobh Co. Cork Ireland
1998 Artist in residence, Sirius Project, Cobh Yacht Club,
Cobh Co. Cork Ireland
Co. Cork Ireland
1996 Artist in residence, The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Co
Monaghan Ireland
1993 Artist in residence, The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Co
Monaghan Ireland
1992 Artist in residence, The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Co
Monaghan Ireland
Reviews/Press
2018 RTE Irish Radio, Mystery Train, arts and music show)
2018 RTE Irish Radio, Culture File, arts show
2018 The Irish Times, The Gloss, Artistic License
2012 Dubh - Dialogues in Black, Irish Examiner, Ireland
2012 Dubh - Dialogues in Black, The Works, RTE television,
Ireland
2008 U23D, Sundance film Festival and Dublin film festival,
Global reviews, including NY Times, USA Today,
Washington Post, Guardian, Irish times
2008 Art Fourm, U23D 'cross over appeal'
2007 U23D Cannes, Global reviews, all media
2004 DIALOGUES: Woman Artists From Ireland By Katy
Deepwell. A book covering in-depth conversations with
13 female Irish artists living in Ireland and abroad
2003 Modern Painters Magazine, review of work for
Kronos Quartet show, Barbican Centre UK
2001 New York Times, review, visual content made for U2's
Elevation World Tour.
1999 Asian Times Japan, Review, Weaving The World
exhibition at Yokohama Museum