This City Holds Us - 20 Years After Hurricane Katrina
White Linen Night Group Show"First Saturdays" Opening Receptions - White Linen Night 2 August 5-9 PM + 6 September 5-8 PM
July 23 – September 13, 2025
Pull Quote
"My paintings and videos are rooted in such pivotal memories from childhood that represent significant psychological moments, set in a culture of racial divide."
Biography
R U T H O W E N S | | | biography
[lives & works - New Orleans, LA ::: b.1959, Augsburg, Germany]
RUTH OWENS was born in 1959 to a young German woman and a Black serviceman from Georgia. The nomadic military lifestyle of her childhood was complicated by restrictions to mixed families in many communities and laid the basis for the formation of her cultural identity and therefore, her artistic practice.
Owens graduated in 2018 with an MFA from the University of New Orleans after leaving her medical practice of 25 years. She is represented by the Ferrara Showman Gallery, and belongs to the artist collective, “The Front,” both in New Orleans. Owens’ work is concerned with contributing to and preserving the black archive, and she uses personal super-8 film references in her painting and video art. Artist residencies include the Joan Mitchell Center, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Vermont Studio Center, the Studios at MASS MoCA, and the International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn. Her work is in the permanent collections of the 21c Museums, Ackland Art Museum at UNC-Chapel Hill, Addison Gallery of American Art, Dale Center for the Study of War and Society, Fidelity Investments Corporate Collection, and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. Her videos were featured in the New Orleans Film Festival and the Patois Film Festival in New Orleans.
Artist Statement
In the sixties, my father was stationed at a military base in the deep South for several years. Although it was prescribed by law, our mixed race family was perfectly happy to live in an exclusively African-American section of town. Our more respectable African-American neighbors refused to associate with us and we had very few friends, most of whom were marginalized by joblessness and alcoholism. A child of one of these families became a shadowy constant in our home. She had the typical facial features of fetal alcohol syndrome and we cared for her when her own mother was unable to do so. This girl’s struggles with alcoholic family problems echoed my own. We shared feelings of insecurity brought on by the alcoholism of her mother and my father.
My paintings and videos are rooted in such pivotal memories from childhood that represent significant psychological moments, set in a culture of racial divide. My family’s personal narrative includes issues like alcoholism which can plague any race or culture. However, as a mixed-race person, cultural power differentials based on race or skin tone (colorism) affect me on a daily basis and must also be considered when telling my story.
My communicative tools lie in an expressive and organic method of painting. The surfaces are scratched, left bare, glopped on, and dripped on for a mood consistent with the emotive content of the image. The surface not only becomes a metaphor for the vulnerability of our physical bodies, but it further represents an attempt to manifest the concept of a fluid racial identity.
My parents filmed events in my childhood with a Super 8 camera. This footage proves to be a valuable resource in mining my psychological past, and clips from these films serve as reference images for my paintings. To heighten the emotional and visual impact of these images, I use of collage, color alterations, compositional changes, and abstraction.
Clips from the Super 8 footage are also used in my video work, along with contemporary clips of my children. Mixing up footage of my children with clips of my childhood causes distortion and confusion of time, and speaks to the idea that past traumas are recorded in genetic memory. The videos inform any exhibition of my oil or casein paintings, and reinforce the feeling of getting an intimate view of a mixed-race family’s personal story through a cultural lens.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
2018 Master of Fine Arts, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA. 1986 Doctorate of Medicine, Northwestern Medical School, Chicago, IL. 1981 Bachelor of Arts, Carleton College, Northfield, MN.
Press
2025 “Prospect.6: The Future is Present, The Harbinger is Home” Art Papers, March 2025
2024 “Prospect.6 Casts New Orleans as a Harbinger and a Harbour” Frieze Magazine, November 2024
“Ruth Owens: Kidnapped on a Sunny Day at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, Biloxi” Emily Alessandrini for Burnaway, November, 2024
2022 “Volta Visits: Ruth Owens,” Gallery Gurls for Volta Art Fairs, New York, May 6
2020 “Black Outdoors: Ruth Owens in Hammond, Louisiana,” Burnaway: The Voice of Art in the South, October 15.
2019 “Artist Ruth Owens reflects on racial, cultural meanings of phrase ‘good family’” The Gambit, May 27.
2018 “On Camera: Ruth Owens at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery,” Pelican Bomb Review, August 23.
“Review: ‘Identity Theft ’and ‘Balancing Cultures’,” The Gambit, August 6.
2017 “Identities,” The New Orleans Art Review, June 1.
“Review: Conspiracies and Surrounding Circumstances,” The Gambit, April 19.
2016 “Contemporary Artists Respond to the New Orleans Baby Dolls,” The Gambit, April 6.
2015 “Review: Louisiana Contemporary,” The Gambit, September 8.
Residencies
March 2024 Mass MoCA
April 2023 International Studio & Curatorial Program-NY July 2022 Mass MoCA
Sep. 2020 Joan Mitchell Center
Feb. 2019 Addison Gallery of American Art
July 2018 The Vermont Studio Center
Public Collections
2024 Dark Alocasia, Ochsner Children’s Hospital Public Collection 2023 Witness, 21 C Museum.
2022 Bianca, study, Witness, study; Summertime Girl, study; Schwanda, 21C Museum.
2021 Lessons Lost,Ogden Museum of Southern Art.
2021 Vietnam Opa, study,Dale Center for the Study of War and Society, University of Southern Mississippi.
2021 Boyguide II, Ackland Museum of Art, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
2020 Vietnam Opa, Ackland Museum of Art, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
2019 True Blue, Artist Portfolio, New Orleans Museum of Art.
2018 Wally and Husband, Addison Gallery of American Art.
Grants and Honors
2024
Prospect.6 Triennial Artist
2023
“Creative Conversation,” The Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA 2022 National Performance Network, Take Notice Fund Grant 2022 South Arts Individual Artist Career Opportunity Grant 2022 Joseph Robert Foundation Grant
2022
Sherrill Collection of American Art Foundation Grant 2021 Wassaic Project Editions Program Invitee
2021
Focus Artist, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA.
Solo Exhibitions:
2024
“Kidnapped on a Sunny Day,” The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, Beach Drive, Biloxi, MS
“Kidnapped on a Sunny Day,” The Front Gallery, St. Claude Avenue, New Orleans, LA
2023
“Entanglement: all life is life,” Ferrara Showman Gallery, Julia St., New Orleans, LA
2021
“Be Kind to Yourself,” Ferrara Showman Gallery, Julia St., New Orleans, LA
2020
“Black Outdoors,” Southeastern Louisiana University Contemporary Art Gallery, Hammond, LA
2019
“Good Family,” The Front Gallery, St. Claude Avenue, New Orleans, LA
2018
“Identity Theft,” Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, Julia St., New Orleans, LA
“Baby Love,” University of New Orleans Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2017
“Conspiracies,” Barrister’s Gallery, St. Claude Avenue, New Orleans, LA
2016
“Steppin ’Out,” Xavier University Chapel Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 AVIFF International Art Film Festival, “Visitation, A Cosmogram in Four Movements,” 2022
Artplexe Marseilles, France
2024 “The Contemporary South,” The Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA
2024 “Individuals,” Second Story Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2023 “Allumer Natchez,” Natchez, MS
2023 “Knowing Who We Are: The Contemporary Dialogue,” The Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA
2023 “Tiny Flicks Screening,” Parlour Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2022 “Summer Reading,” Carroll Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
2021 “Art After 1950,” Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
2021 “Art in Embassies,” Embassy of the United States of America, Kampala, Uganda
2020 “Good Family,” Canadian Independent Film Festival, Montreal-Quebec, Canada
2020 “Suffrage 100,” Sue and Eugene Mercy Gallery, Loomis Chaffee School, Windsor, CT
2020 “Expanding the Narrative: Recent Acquisitions,” Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA
2020 “Forever is Composed of Nows,” A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2019 “Louisiana Contemporary, 2019,” Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA.
2019 “New Orleans Film Festival, 2019,”New Orleans, LA
2019 “Welcome to the Afrofuture: Ground Zero,” New Orleans African American Museum, New Orleans, LA
2019 “Active Directions of the Mind,” A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2019 “The Wizard,” Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles, CA.
2019 Art on Paper, Pier 36, New York, NY
2018 “True Blue,” UNO St. Claude Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2018 “oh motHER,” Custom House Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
2018 “Tango,” Little Berlin Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2018 “Responsorial: The Second Sex and the Contemporary Dialectics of Misogyny,” New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts, New Orleans, LA
2018 “The Future is Female,” UNO St. Claude Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2018 “CURRENT,” Isaac Delgado Fine Arts Gallery, New Orleans, LA
