Joyce Owens

Joyce Owens [ [http://www.joyceowens.com The Joyce Owens Official Web Site] ] earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) degree from Howard University in Washington D.C. and Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree in painting from Yale University. Ms. Owens has held many arts related positions from arts and crafts director and art teacher to a producer for the CBS television station in Philadelphia and Graphic Arts Coordinator at CBS Chicago.

Professor Joyce Owens (Anderson) teaches studio painting and drawing at Chicago State University. She was appointed the curator of the university galleries starting in January, 2006 (http://www.csu.edu/CollegeOfArtsAndSciences/ArtAndDesign/Joyce.html}

:"...Owens makes a quieter but still emphatic statement. Her largely monochromatic portraits of black men and women, often wearing costumes from the 19th and early 20th centuries, are haunted, haunting projections of a fierce sort of dignity. You feel the strength of these people, and also the way they wore it like armor, protective but burdensome. The weight of history is on their often narrow shoulders, its shadow stealing across their faces." [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20070921/ai_n20507821 Chicago Sun-Times review excerpt, Sept. 21, 2007, Kevin Nance] ]

History

Margaret Hawkins, critic for Artnews Magazine and The Chicago Sun-Times, awarded Owens First Prize in March 2006 for her Survivor Spirits Installation in the 9th Annual Art Open at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago. She competed with nearly 1200 national and international entries for the privilege of being featured in solo show at the gallery. Owens also won Best of Show at ARC Gallery in Chicago in February 2006. John Pittman Weber was the juror. Owens has had four solo exhibitions since last October, 2006, including the ones awarded above. Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois featured Owens in a solo exhibition in January, 2007/ Nicole Gallery, in Chicago, presented Owens in a solo exhibition from March 16 until April 28, 2007. Owens was also a guest artist at Gallery 203 in the Flat Iron Fine Arts Building, also in April, with ceramic artist Marva Pitchford Jolly. Owens presented her work in both juried and invitational exhibitions during 2006, including showing in Pennsylvania at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and speaking on the select panel discussion and more.

In 2005 Ms. Owens was the featured artist for the 15th annual DanceAfrica Chicago at Columbia College, her work gracing the poster announcing the events of the annual festival, and also was used for publicity materials for the Humanities Festival coinciding with the dance activities.

Also in 2005, Owens was singled out to be the signature artist for Real Art Work (R.A.W.) an annual art exposition which originated at Chicago State University and now held at the Parkway Ballroom in Bronzeville, Chicago, Il. Owens was chosen for a two-person exhibition with Marva Pitchford Jolly at the Homewood Studios in Minneapolis, MN in June 2005, and was also invited to participate in the three inaugural exhibitions at the Gallery Guichard. She, again this year, has been included in the national juried exhibition, Black Creativity at the Museum of Science and Industry, where she has won numerous prizes over the years including Best of Show. Artist Faith Ringgold awarded Owens 1st Prize in the 5th International Open at Woman Made Gallery.

A partial list of her juried and invitational exhibition history includes: The Pittsburg Center for the Arts, in Pa., The Butridge Gallery in Austin, Texas, Howard University, most recently in a prestigious alumnae exhibition [ [http://www.howard.edu/library/art@howard/goa/alumniexhibition/selections/24.htm Howard University Gallery of Art] ] including Elizabeth Catlett, Alma Thomas, David Driskell and other notable artists, Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Connecticut College, the Martin Luther King Complex in Columbus, Ohio, The Philadelphia Convention Center and The Schaumberg Athenaeum Museum in Illinois, The Museum of Science and Industry where she won Best of Show among other prizes over the years, the Spertus Museum, The Chicago Cultural Center, O’Hare Airport, The Daley Center, The Gallery of the School of the Art Institute on Jackson, "Expressions toward the End of the Millennium" exhibition at The Koehline Museum at Oakton Community College, and Wood Street Gallery and Sculpture Garden in Chicago.

In 2001 Owens was selected to be a featured artist during Chicago Artists Month and was asked to sit on the Advisory Committee. She developed the theme "Artists at Work", for 2002. In 2001 she participated in Suite Home Chicago public arts event sponsored by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.

She has been the curator of a series of successful exhibitions in galleries in the Chicago area, most recently, at Woman Made Gallery, an exhibition called Sapphire and Crystals: Black White and Blues was selected as a featured program for Chicago Artists Month, 2005. In 2005 Owens curated three back-to-back exhibitions at the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago on North Michigan Avenue. She has been the curator for exhibitions at The Art Center in Highland Park, Illinois, ARC Gallery, Wood Street Gallery, Chicago State University, South Shore Cultural Center and Concordia University.

Joyce Owens is an associate editor of the "Journal of African American History" [ [http://www.jaah.org/jaah_index_v91.html Journal of African American History - Index to Volume 91] ] .

References