76 Gertrude Place, Asheville, NC
135 Lookout Drive, Asheville, NC
65 Kenilworth Road, Asheville, NC
74 Tacoma Circle, Asheville, NC
30 Virginia Avenue, Asheville, NC

Tiger Strikes Asteroid Greenville (TSA GVL)  is excited to announce the opening of I need a guru, presenting work by Barbara Owen. This exhibition takes place in five small gallery boxes located throughout Asheville, NC, and is organized by TSA GVL member Suzanne Dittenber.

Like everyone else, Owen knew very little about the virus during the first pandemic wave, and was overwhelmed with questions: How long will it last? How to keep oneself safe? How severe will the sickness be if she or someone in her family falls sick? Unlike some artists, she could not find comfort in creating: she was too distracted, worried, and waiting for clarity.

That experience left Owen feeling that something was missing or had changed in her art practice. When she got back to the studio, she made a little plaque that said I need a guru to amuse herself and lighten existential dread. But it also was a reminder that creating art was a way of finding clarification and enlightenment. I need a guru is about telling a story with objects. Through making, Owen imagined what her guru would be concerned with and how to communicate those imaginings.

Temple of Color Gradation shows a guru concerned with color, space, and the body.
Intuition is a surface covered in fingerprints; a record of bodily impressions.
Grip was made by firmly squeezing a lump of clay, releasing tension by the act of making solid the space of her clenched hand.
Tornado Torso is made from blood-red lines that swirl like a tornado, a movement around a negative space.
The Destination is a gridded path, the journey we all take into the distant unknown.
The Book of Flying Grid is a manuscript that illustrates the path distorted from the framework.
Impression Block is a dais made from the artist’s touch.  
Circular is the path.
A Silver Mirror is a form for reflection.

Barbara Owen grew up in Maine. She received an Interdivisional BA in Sculpture and Poetry from Bennington College, VT and is a 2020 graduate of the MFA Art Practice program at the School of Visual Arts, NY. Her work has been exhibited at The Arts Center, Troy, NY, Wheaton College, Norton, MA, Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI, Jamestown Art Center, Jamestown, RI and UMass Dartmouth’s Art Gallery, New Bedford, MA. In 2016 two paintings were included in exhibitions with the Arts in Embassies (AIE) program, one in Ports Moresby, Papua New Guinea and another in the permanent collection at the American Embassy in Paramaribo, Suriname. Owen has been awarded residencies nationwide, including Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, CA, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, NY, and MASS MoCA/Assets for Artists, MA. Her work has been written about in Big, Red and Shiny, ArtScope Magazine, Take Magazine and other publications. She divides her time between Rhode Island and Brooklyn, New York.

barbaraowen.net
@babsowen