will owen

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

Will has exhibited, taught, or performed internationally in China, Denmark, France, Kazakhstan, Iceland, Freetown Christiania, Pakistan, Russia, Taiwan, and Wales. Including solo exhibitions in Russia, Denmark, Iceland, Taiwan, and France. Will has shown work (solo or in collaboration) nationally at The Museum of the Moving Image (NYC), Black Mountain College Museum (North Carolina), Abron Arts Center (NYC), Governor’s Island (NYC), Philadelphia Water Works Museum, University of Maryland, Jacob’s Pillow (Massachusetts), Judson Church (NYC), Independent Seaport Museum (Philadelphia), Smith College, The Croft (Michigan), and Flux Factory (NYC).

Will’s work has been supported by Foundation for Contemporary Arts (emergency grant), Pew Center for Arts and Heritage (capacity building award), Toby Devan Lewis Foundation Award, The Danish Arts Foundation, ARoS Kunstmuseum, The Swedish Arts Council, The Sachs Foundation, The Welsh Arts Council, 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. Various forms of collaboration are central to my work. The natural landscape and culture in which I was reared seep 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 8 solo exhibitions: Treasure Hill Artist Village ( 2024 Taipei, Taiwan) 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 honored to be commissioned to co-curate 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, will 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.

will is a frequent collaborator with Every Body Meeting a collective including performer Hsiao-Jou Tang, and choreographers Xan Burley and Alex Springer (Frances Ha) and works with other artists, performers, and choreographers such as Curtis Thomas, Myssi Robinson, and Miguel

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.