KATY COWAN | 16 March - 22 April 2023 | Miles McEnery Gallery

KATY COWAN
gods on a bridge
16 MARCH - 22 APRIL 2023
MILES MCENERY GALLERY IS PLEASED TO PRESENT gods on a bridge, Katy cowan's inaugural solo exhibition at the gallery. the exhibition will OPEN 16 march AT 515 WEST 22ND STREET AND will REMAIN ON VIEW THROUGH 22 april. Accompanying the exhibition is A FULLY ILLUSTRATED digital CATALOGUE FEATURING essays BY Stephanie Cristello and Stephanie bailey.
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New York, NY: Miles McEnery Gallery, ‘Katy Cowan: gods on a bridge,’ 16 March - 22 April 2023
KATY COWAN

itself; as far, 2019

Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum

29 x 159 x 3 inches

73.7 x 403.9 x 7.6 cm
- itself; as far (detail 1), 2019, Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum, 29 x 159 x 3 inches, 73.7 x 403.9 x 7.6 cm
- itself; as far (detail 2), 2019, Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum, 29 x 159 x 3 inches, 73.7 x 403.9 x 7.6 cm
"Assembled from shapes of jagged cardboard used for architectural modeling, tape, and rope, that burn away after being exposed to the molten elements during the forging process, Cowan’s cast aluminum supports are painted in swathes of monochromatic grayscale, reminiscent of concrete, whose ground is interrupted by brazen markings. Across the ebullient compositions, these highly saturated and neon hues jolt across the surface in scrawls and geometric patterns like the tags that deface monuments across Berlin."

- Stephanie Cristello in "City of Statues"
KATY COWAN

fragment of rest, 2023

Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum/painted wood

28 x 21 3/8 x 2 1/2 inches

71.1 x 54.3 x 6.4 cm
- fragments of rest (detail 1), 2023, Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum/painted wood, 28 x 21 3/8 x 2 1/2 inches, 71.1 x 54.3 x 6.4 cm
- fragments of rest (detail 2), 2023, Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum/painted wood, 28 x 21 3/8 x 2 1/2 inches, 71.1 x 54.3 x 6.4 cm
Katy Cowan studio, 2023, Berlin, Germany
"The newest body of work by Katy Cowan indicates a sensitivity toward the figurative sculptures that populate many European cities, in this case Berlin, alongside other inert passages of stone (barriers, buildings) that look onto contemporary daily life. She watches them as strangers on the street, remarking how they relate to one another. 'Through the crevices of bent arms, arched backs, proud and humble chins, repose, strength, love, fear, disinterest, I watch the seasons change, the clouds move through them, people of Berlin coming and going—resting, reposing, drinking, laughing, and the city humming by. They remain,' writes Cowan. 'I feel their bodies, their emotions, their changes in attitude, their lives. Sometimes they are so fluid, and sometimes so cold.'"

- Stephanie Cristello in "City of Statues"
- Katy Cowan
  flatness , 2021
  Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum
  82 x 8 x 2 inches
  208.3 x 20.3 x 5.1 cm
- Katy Cowan
  marks cover, layers layer, 2021
  Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum
  48 1/2 x 11 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches
  121.9 x 30.5 x 5.1 cm
KATY COWAN

if only, if yet, 2023

Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum/painted wood

28 1/2 x 28 x 3 inches

72.4 x 71.1 x 7.6 cm
- if only, if yet (detail 1), 2023, Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum/painted wood, 28 1/2 x 28 x 3 inches, 72.4 x 71.1 x 7.6 cm
- if only, if yet (detail 2), 2023, Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum/painted wood, 28 1/2 x 28 x 3 inches, 72.4 x 71.1 x 7.6 cm
Katy Cowan, 2023, Berlin, Germany

"Indeed, as much as the artist was surprised by how the landscape entered her work in California, the turn her work took after moving to Berlin was equally unexpected. Daily hikes in California were replaced with walks in a city where, as Cowan observes, 'images bleed out of every surface.' Observing an urban landscape defined by texture and depth—of marks layered upon marks that speak to the density of effects and affects contained within every nook—Cowan began to find Berlin’s surfaces reflecting themselves back not only in the casts she creates to paint on, but in the works on paper she produces as part of her studio practice. Where drawings once emphasised the minimalist line of a looping rope, more recent works on paper express a pointillist depth, with volume built up through staccato marks."

- Stephanie Bailey in "Katy Cowan: Line, Ground, Figure"
KATY COWAN

something intangible and else, 2023

Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminium

40 x 36 x 2 1/2 inches

101.6 x 91.4 x 6.4 cm
- something intangible and else (detail 1), 2023, Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum, 40 x 36 x 2 1/2 inches, 101.6 x 91.4 x 6.4 cm
- something intangible and else (detail 2), 2023, Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum, 40 x 36 x 2 1/2 inches, 101.6 x 91.4 x 6.4 cm
KATY COWAN

tangled, eternal motion, 2023

Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum

45 x 25 x 2 1/2 inches

114.3 x 63.5 x 6.4 cm

"Where Cowan would previously create the surfaces to cast without knowing how she would work on them once rendered into aluminum, these new pieces saw the artist engage with compositional form during the initial stages of development, creating a more preconstructed image as a result. Perhaps it is in this shift where Cowan situates the figurative turn in her work, in which the stone bodies she passes everyday have manifested as sculptural abstractions and fragmented, embodied landscapes. 'I’m realising that being open to the subject matter around me made me more open to letting the forms for the cast be dictated by that,' Cowan explains."

- Stephanie Bailey in "Katy Cowan: Line, Ground, Figure"
- tangled, eternal motion (detail 1), 2023, Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum, 45 x 25 x 2 1/2 inches, 114.3 x 63.5 x 6.4 cm
- tangled, eternal motion (detail 2), 2023, Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum, 45 x 25 x 2 1/2 inches, 114.3 x 63.5 x 6.4 cm
KATY COWAN

through bends and reaches, 2023

Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum

29 1/2 x 26 x 2 1/2 inches

74.9 x 66 x 6.4 cm
- through bends and reaches (detail 1), 2023, Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum, 29 1/2 x 26 x 2 1/2 inches, 74.9 x 66 x 6.4 cm
- through bends and reaches (detail 2), 2023, Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum, 29 1/2 x 26 x 2 1/2 inches, 74.9 x 66 x 6.4 cm
Katy Cowan studio, 2023, Berlin, Germany
"The hybrid character of the figures is also present in the artist’s attitude toward the medium of painting—as works on paper that are also sculpture, or the crisis of representation embedded in the very nature of collage. Cowan’s attention across these spheres amounts to a sum of comparisons—between history and the present, movement and inertia, our bodies and those of others. Here, collapsed in a series of interwoven vignettes observed by Cowan’s gaze, we witness fragments of the past inflected by the possibilities of reading sentiment into unconscious beings. A process of imbuing sentience onto not only painting, but also a city steeped in a record of wounds as visible through its statues."

- Stephanie Cristello in "City of Statues"
KATY COWAN

when stone entwines, 2023

Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum, in two parts

Left Panel 39 1/2 x 29 3/4 x 2 1/2 inches, 100.3 x 75.6 x 6.4 cm

Right Panel 45 x 32 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches, 114.3 x 82.6 x 6.4 cm
- when stone entwines (detail 1), 2023, Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum, in two parts, Left Panel 39 1/2 x 29 3/4 x 2 1/2 inches, 100.3 x 75.6 x 6.4 cm, Right Panel 45 x 32 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches, 114.3 x 82.6 x 6.4 cm
- when stone entwines (detail 2), 2023, Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum, in two parts, Left Panel 39 1/2 x 29 3/4 x 2 1/2 inches, 100.3 x 75.6 x 6.4 cm, Right Panel 45 x 32 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches, 114.3 x 82.6 x 6.4 cm
Katy Cowan studio, 2022, Berlin, Germany

"That sense of contouring manifests across 'gods on a bridge,' where paint and graphite marks build volume upon cast volume to represent form as much as activity in space. Such that each work constitutes at once a fleshing out of figures as much as a mapping of movements— whether bodies in a park or city street or marks that dance across the capacious plane of representation itself, where line, ground, and figure collapse into a vortex of intuitive becoming."

- Stephanie Bailey in "Katy Cowan: Line, Ground, Figure"
KATY COWAN

whisper to night, 2023

Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum

28 x 22 x 2 inches

71.1 x 55.9 x 5.1 cm
- whisper to night (detail 1), 2023, Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum, 28 x 22 x 2 inches, 71.1 x 55.9 x 5.1 cm
- whisper to night (detail 2), 2023, Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum, 28 x 22 x 2 inches, 71.1 x 55.9 x 5.1 cm
Katy Cowan in her studio, 2022, Berlin, Germany

Katy Cowan (b. 1982, Lake Geneva, WI) received her Master of Fine Arts from Otis College of Art and Design; her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Puget Sound; and completed the 2003 summer semester at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, Ireland.

Cowan has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; Philip Martin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Document Space, Chicago, IL; Kate Werble Gallery, New York, NY; Lynden Sculpture Garden, Milwaukee, WI; Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles, CA; Kittredge Gallery, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA; and The Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI.

She has been included in recent group exhibitions at Philip Martin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Meyer Riegger, Berlin, Germany; Los Angeles Valley College, Valley Glen, CA; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA; Milwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI; North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND; Crisp-Ellert Art Museum, Flagler College, St. Augustine, FL; The Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI; and Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA.

Her work may be found in the collections of the Art, Design & Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA; Lynden Sculpture Garden, Milwaukee, WI; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN; U.S. Embassy, Maputo, Mozambique; North Dakota Museum of Art, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND; and the Northwestern Mutual Insurance Collection, Milwaukee, WI.

Cowan lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
View More
- Katy Cowan
  when stone entwines , 2023
  Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum, in two parts
  Left Panel 39 1/2 x 29 3/4 x 2 1/2 inches, 100.3 x 75.6 x 6.4 cm
  Right Panel 45 x 32 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches, 114.3 x 82.6 x 6.4 cm
- Katy Cowan
  whisper to night, 2023
  Oil and enamel paint, graphite on cast aluminum
  28 x 22 x 2 inches
  71.1 x 55.9 x 5.1 cm

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