Doug Owen’s found object sculptures reflect his experience of the South Dakota landscape of his youth. Constructed with materials that Owen and his wife Grace find in ditches, abandoned lots, and old farmsteads, his figurative sculptures speak to the elements of the natural world and the forces of nature. In this series of sculptures, graceful contour lines of rusted rebar or strapping wire suggest volume and solidity of form. Life size horses made with steel armatures are sheathed in twisted metal siding and rusted wire evoking the power of a tornado to crumple or the wind to sing through open spaces.

Owen’s earlier work, also made with found objects, allowed the form to speak to him. Interesting pieces of wood, which suggested birds, would be polychromed and presented on fabricated legs. At one point he also carved wooded birds until he realized that his sensibility was not in detail but in the expressive use of materials.

As a departure from the found form dictating the final piece, and also wanting to create larger sculptures, Owen started experimenting. His first large-scale work, created in 1996, was a rearing horse that now dominates his living room. However, he realized that the horse, made with an armature, covered in foam rubber and finished with a stucco like material, was simply too restrictive. In the process of fabricating additional armatures he realized that he was much more drawn to the open structure and its ability to bring the imagination into play.

While studying art at General Beadle College, now South Dakota State, Owen particularly enjoyed exercises in gesture drawing. He loved the challenge of evoking as much feeling as possible with an economy of line. This concern is still evident in his work.

Photography by Deborah Jacobs

Education

University of South Dakota , Dakota State College - Art Major

Exhibitions & Art Fairs

2007 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2007 Trajan Gallery, Carmel, California
2005-2006 SOFA Show Chicago, Illinois
2004 Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri
2003, 2004 Cherry Creek Arts Walk & Show, Denver. CO.
1999 Apex Gallery, School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, S.D.
1984 Northlander Gallery 306, Sioux Falls, S.D.
1984 Anakota Fine Arts Gallery, Rapid City, S.D.

Benefits & Collections

2005 Pottsboro,Texas Art and benefit auction
2005 Sandy Koltun Collection, Chicago, Illinois
2005 Ron Brasch Collection Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, CO.
2003 Private Sale- Poppy Gallery, Columbia, Missouri
2001 Black Hills Playhouse Art And Benefit Auction , Rapid City, S.D.
2000 Rapid City Arts Council, Art and Benefit Auction Rapid City, S.D.

Private collections:

Landmark Banks, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma

Publications & Press

2006 Susan Felt “Abundant Outdoor Views Offer Feel of a Tree House,” The Arizona Republic , Nov. 4
2005 Marcia Vanderlip “Saddle Up to Sculpture,” Colombia Tribune August. 14.
2003 Itinerary- State of the Art, Colorado Homes & Lifestyle, Dec.