Art: Laura Owens creates giant, abstract works like 1980s album art

Los Angeles-based artist Laura Owens is something of a celebrity in her home town. She was one of the youngest artists ever to have a solo show at LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art in 2003 and has since been involved in a number of community driven art projects that her large-scale paintings have facilitated – she’s used her painting studio as a gallery space and performance and exhibition centre for all sorts of interesting collaborations.

Stylistically Laura’s paintings owe much to the 1980s. There’s colour palettes and patterns at work there that would look at home on a Talking Heads album. But the depth and complexity of her work also borrows heavily from the way we see things on screen, with different windows, layers, textures and patterns combining on one canvas like a desktop acting as a repository for all manner of visual information. Aside from giant canvasses she also makes intricate artist books that present her ideas on an entirely different scale. I’m hooked, so expect an interview in the near future Laura.