Laura Owens (born 1970) is one of the most vital artists to emerge from the 1990s Los Angeles art scene, and a refreshingly uplifting presence in the world of contemporary painting. Her deceptively romantic-naive visual language dissolves distinctions between abstract and figurative art, and her paintings exhibit a whimsical engagement with sources as various as Color Field painting, Pattern & Decoration, children"s book illustration and textile design. As Owens told an interviewer, "My work gets created in this space of freedom, and that"s why a lot of it has to do with experimentation, invention, and sort of a juxtaposition of things you wouldn"t normally juxtapose." With its lush, floral palette, Owens" work offers nothing less than an unabashed pleasure at being in the world. This catalogue accompanies the artist"s first solo museum exhibition in Germany, and reproduces for the first time a range of her more recent works.