Owen Fu
Owen Fu (Guilin, China; lives and works in Los Angeles, USA)
Represented By Balice Hertling, Paris & Antenna Space, Shanghai
“No story doesn't mean the absence of story,
There is a story, a story about saying No.”
Owen Fu moved to the United States when he was still quite young to study. He first studied philosophy, then art, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). After two bachelors in Philosophy and Art, in 2018, Owen completed an MFA at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California.
Owen’s works are part of the permanent collections of institutions worldwide, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, USA; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA; Domus Collection, New York, USA; the K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong, China; the START Museum, Shanghai, China; the George Economou Collection, Athens, Greece; the Aïshti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon; and the Juan and Patricia Vergez Collection, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and among others.
SOLO
2023
Last Summer, Balice Hertling, Paris, France
2022
Ordinary Things, O-Town House, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Stealing Beauty, Antenna Space, Shanghai, China
2021
After Hours, Balice Hertling, Paris, France
2020
6 self-portraits and one lamp, Gallery Platform LA
Bubbly Hills, Mine Project, Hong Kong, China
Small Talk, O-Town House, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2018
No Story, Art Center Main Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Body Obsession, Art Center PPR, Pasadena, CA, USA
2017
"Happy ever after"; TaXue Gallery, Shanghai, China
2016
Emoji Expression, New York Art Expo, New York, NY, USA
GROUP (Selected)
2024
Dance This Mess Around Curated By Richard Hull, Patient Info, Chicago, IL, USA
2023
Palai Project, Balice Hertling, Lecce, Italy
Together in Time, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Beijing Biennial: Magic Square Art and Literature in Mirror Image, Curator BoLiang Shen, Beijing, China
Uncanny Valley, Curator Yang Zi, Gagosian, Hong Kong, China
2022
Space, Laurel Gitlen, New York, NY, USA
Inner Dims, Sifang Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Trace Image, Deborah Schamoni, Munich, Germany
Exposition N°120 (maybe), Balice Hertling, Paris, France
2021
The Going Away Present For Bruce Hainley, Kristina Kite Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Organized by Kristina Kite and Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer
Palai Project, Balice Hertling, Lecce, Italy
Who's Afraid of the Great Indoors, Redling Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Pathologically Social, organized with Mark Verabioff, O-Town House, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2020
Winterfest, curated by Saim Demircan, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO, USA
Gennariello (part II), curated by Daniele Balice, Balice Hertling, Paris, France
About FACE: Cover Me, Curator Ali Subotnick, Gallery Platform LA
David Zwirner Platform: Los Angeles
2019
Condo Complex: Lomex Gallery hosting O-town House, New York
2018
Just Edging 2, Art Center college of Design, Pasadena, CA, USA
2016
Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL, USA
If there is not mistaken, it was Virginia Woolf who once described her diary writing as a “loosening of ligaments.” The gray zone of the diary––where autobiography and fantasy intermingle with emotional experience both dark and joyous––seems an apt place to begin with the paintings by Owen Fu. His works are derived from his observation of the world which contains the double entendre nature with art historical and contemporary reference, sincerity and humor, quirkiness and poeticism. Of all the elements that make a painterly vision, for Owen, it's line that dominates. His paintings put the viewer into a state of flow, moving effortlessly through and across his intuitive use of line, structure, and faux-naïveté.