will owen

will owen originally from North Carolina, US is an artist, composer, and curator currently based in Philadelphia, PA. Will works mainly with Sound, Sculpture, and Food. The output of the work can take form of discreet sculptural works, interactive installations, audio scores, meals, or printmaking. Will uses these techniques to connect historical and social histories to the present-day lived inheritances.

Will has exhibited, taught, or performed internationally in China, Denmark, France, Kazakhstan, Iceland, Freetown Christiania, Wales, Pakistan, and Russia. Will has shown work nationally at The Museum of the Moving Image (NYC), Philadelphia Water Works Museum, Governor’s Island (NYC), Black Mountain College Museum (North Carolina), Independent Seaport Museum (Philadelphia), and Flux Factory (NYC).

Will’s work has been supported by Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, The Danish Arts Foundation, ARoS Kunstmuseum, The Swedish Arts Council, Toby Devan Lewis Foundation, The Sachs Foundation, Lawrence Shprintz Foundation The Velocity Fund, and The Center for Experimental Ethnography in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

CV Here

List of Collaborators Here

Artist Statement:

At the core of my artistic practice is an obsession with urgent state changes: physical, political, social, emotional, and agential. Though I use many methodologies and materials to point towards these state changes, I return to three: sculpture, sound, and mark-making.

I was born in rural Appalachia (North Carolina, U.S.), near Black Mountain College—a singular pedagogical school whose horizontal social structure and multi-modal approach remain an influence. The natural landscape and culture in which I was reared seeps into my creative thinking as much as any built environment where I now live and work. This hybridized reality of being on lands that have changed '“ownership” through various types of extraction informs my understanding of place, heritage, and ecosystem.

In the work I use a variety of methods in service of the state changing concepts, such as sound production and field recording, welding, metal machining, forging, mold-making, hot hammering, whittling, natural fiber dye, wax coating, printmaking, collective cooking, and more.

Facts about will’s art practice:

will has had 7 solo exhibitions: Captive Portal ( 2023 Copenhagen, Denmark ), Kompan Gallery ( 2023 Siglufjordur, Iceland ), 33 Hawley Gallery ( 2019 Northampton, Massachusetts ) The Blue Hall ( 2019 Petrozavodsk, Russia ), Les Ateliers Gallery ( 2018 Clermont-Ferrand, France ) Flux Factory ( 2017 New York, NY ), Little Berlin Annex ( 2014 Philadelphia, PA )

2023 will was an invited participant and workshop leader as part of CEC Artslink conference “Collective Practices: Re-imagining the Future” in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

In 2022 will received the Toby Devan Lewis award upon graduation from University of Pennsylvania with a Masters in Fine Arts degree.

In 2017 will was a Pew Center for Arts and Heritage performance grant finalist and received a capacity building award during that process.

In 2015 he was awarded the honor of co-curating and performing in a MATA Interval performance executive produced by Philip Glass, Eleonor Sandresky, and Lisa Bielawa.

In May 2015, will was a participating artist in Art Weekend Aarhus and had a solo performance in Kunsthal Aarhus as well as ARoS Museum in Aarhus.

In August 2015 he was an invited artist participating in Copenhagen Art Week and created a large, interactive sound work that was installed in the metro system in Copenhagen.

In September 2015 Will was a participating artist for the Art Prospect Festival in Saint Petersburg, Russia collaborating with 6 other artists from Flux Factory.

He is a frequent collaborator with choreographers Xan Burley and Alex Springer (Frances Ha).

Will's work has been covered by NPR Morning Edition, Art In America, New York Times, Hyperallergic, Omni Magazine, ArtFCity, Philadelphia Inquirer, The Atlantic, Gothamist, Kunsten.Nu, Kopenhagen, Vice's The Creator's Project, The Art Blog, St. Claire Review, and Time Out NY.

He is on the board of directors of the international artist residency, Flux Factory (NYC), Currently on the advisory board of Artistes En Residence (Clermont-Ferrand, France) and was a curator at Little Berlin Gallery (Philadelphia, PA) for 5 years.