Poster design by Amanda Eller

Exhibition Statement

Living Room represents a culmination of my work over the last two years, in which I’ve been experimenting with the boundaries of the picture plane and exploring the ways abstract shapes occupy space. In my paintings, lumpy sculptural forms bulge from the canvas and figures push beyond the confining borders of the rectangle. Presented in dialogue with these paintings, shapes have been reimagined as human-scale sculptures built out of plywood and paper maché. As if they have stepped from the canvas to take on three-dimensional form, these embodied shapes are arranged within the walls of the gallery much like their two-dimensional counterparts are arranged within the borders of a painting. 

The long window of the gallery becomes a frame through which to view these sculptural shapes and the relationships between them. Shapes in my work reference both figure and object to explore themes of the body, human relationships, and family structure. Shapes lean against one another, press into each other, and lift each other up. I’m interested in the corporeality of shapes and the objectification of bodies, and in exploring the ways that this tension between object and body becomes more pronounced at a life-sized scale. When looking through the gallery window, I want the viewer to feel as if they are peering into a room occupied with strange, almost-human, living objects.

Biography

Jordan Grace Owens (b. 1987, Winston-Salem, NC) is a painter and sculptor based in Durham, NC. Working in layered washes of acrylic and oil on semi-sculptural shaped canvas and plywood surfaces, she creates arrangements of abstract shapes that explore the physicality of human relationships. Primarily self-taught, Owens’ studio work follows a decade-long career in freelance illustration. You can find her work at www.jordangraceowens.com or on Instagram at @jordangraceowens.

Labels (looking at the gallery from left to right)

Small Group (I)
acrylic and aqua-resin putty on canvas and plywood,
13 x 9 inches,
2025

Both Sides
Acrylic, oil, and aqua-resin putty on canvas,
30 x 36 inches,
2025

Stability
Acrylic on canvas,
18 x 24 inches,
2025

Parts
Acrylic, oil, and aqua-resin putty on canvas,
36 x 25 inches,
2025

Ties
Acrylic, soft pastel, oil stick, and aqua-resin on canvas and plywood,
21 x 25 inches,
2026