Bio

Owen Marc Laurion (1988) was born and raised in New Hampshire. An interdisciplinary artist, he completed a BA in both Anthropology and Philosophy at the University of Rochester while taking independent studies in Ceramics at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Owen later earned his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute during an influential period living in the Bay Area.

Owen’s artistic approach is rooted in topographies and becoming - a practice attuned towards embodiment, the sketch, and the unknown. Drawing from a range of historical perspectives, and with an interest towards socio-cultural tension (human-tectonics), Owen’s work winds its way through contemporary ‘socio-tecture.’ Though often working through an expanded lens of sculpture, ceramics forms the foundation from which to synthesize disparate yet connected ideas, and allows entry to a visual language framed by a conjunctive attitude.

Framing many of his projects and various bodies of work, are some core experiences around labor and class: growing up in rural communities in New Hampshire, working as a cook and chef for nearly two decades, working in the construction trades, being a studio tech for ceramic institutions and in general providing the sort of manual and emotional labor which is mostly unseen, hidden or even disregarded. These paths reveal much of the socio-economic hierarchies which are mirrored in the spatiality of labor and identity spurring on the sort of destructive aspirationalism plaguing many marginal communities. Mapping these experiences in both time and space is helpful to see the undercurrents of instability, messiness, and destabilized-hierarchies often explored in Owen's work.

Owen has exhibited nationally and participated in residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, the North Carolina Pottery Center, Starworks, the Iowa Center for Ceramics and Glass, Red Lodge Clay Center and most recently as a visiting instructor and AiR at Knox College. He received the Robert Howe Fletcher Award for Sculpture (2015), was a Take Five Scholar (2010-11), awarded the Rush Rees Purchase Prize (2010) and more recently was awarded a Catalyst Grant from the Iowa Arts Council and NEA. Owen presented a collaborative lecture with Deighton Abrams at the 2018 NECA, “Seeking Ethical Craft”