Jared Owens
New York, NY
Jared Owens (b. 1968 Queens, NY) is a justice impacted artist who works in painting, sculpture, and installation. Using carceral materials and references he brings attention to architectures of confinement, as well as the purposeful “shadowing” of humanity.
Since 2021, Owens has a studio at Silver Art Project in the World Trade Center, where he is also the Artist Liaison. He was one of three finalists for the 2024 Frieze Impact Prize, a 2022-23 Art for Justice Fellow, and 2020 Right of Return Fellow. He is the curator of Anthem X in Miami in 2022 and had a residency in Mexico City at Naranjo 141 in 2023. Recently he was featured in Cultured Magazine (Abigail Glasgow. When Art’s Against the Carceral State) and
the Voice of America “Connect” series (https://www.voanews.com/a/6977195.html). In the last three years exhibitions include, No Justice Without Love curated by Daisy Desrosiers at the Ford Foundation, NY and Gund Gallery, OH; Visions of Transcendence: Creating Space in East and West, curated by Emma Diffley at the Wende Museum in Los Angeles; and Public Matters, curated by Alison Glenn for The Belt in Detroit;111… and other stories Malin Gallery, NY (Solo); Chosen Family, Martos Gallery, NY; SHAG Right of Return curated by Dana Gluck, Jesse Krimes, and Dr Nicole R. Fleetwood, Spring Hill Arts Gathering, New Preston, CT; Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, curated by Dr Nicole R. Fleetwood (2020-2021) at MoMA PS1, NY and traveling.
Jared Owens. Shadow Boxing 101, 2023/24. Acrylic, mixed mediums on canvas, soil from prison yard at F.C.I. Fairton. Image courtesy the artist.
Remembering Attica: the optics of uprising
Jared Owens (b. 1968) is a justice-impacted artist working in painting and sculpture. Using carceral references he explores architectures of confinement and the purposeful “shadowing” of humanity.
Artist BioOn September 9, 1971, more than 1200 men started an uprising at Attica Correctional Facility to negotiate for humane living conditions, political rights, and education programs. Five days later, the siege had garnered the highest number of fatalities in the history of prison riots, but it also sparked nationwide rallies for prison reform and many artists offering solidarity, including Angela Davis, John Lennon, the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition, Guerrilla Art Action Group and Faith Ringold, whose poster United States of Attica (1972) framed the event within legacies of racialized confinement and resistance.
In 2021, while the 50th anniversary of the uprising brought renewed attention through a new documentary film, very few exhibitions or public events took place because of COVID-19 restrictions.
With Remembering Attica: the optics of uprising, Jared Owens will make a series of new works using visual research and interviews with protagonists to pay respect to the landmark efforts of those 1200 men and raise awareness of the ongoing issues of overcrowding and lack of prison reform. As an artist who is formerly incarcerated, Owens is particularly interested in visually presenting the creative ingenuity of siege posture and increasing audiences’ understanding of the carceral architectures in which men and women are confined.
In 2026, Owens will mark the 55th anniversary with an exhibition and publication that brings together artists who stood in solidarity with the Prison Movement at the time of the Attica Uprising, as well as new voices today who continue to speak out against systemic oppression.