Owen is a highly experienced Curator and Arts Industry Specialist with a diverse career working across the industry but with a long history as a Public Art Consultant. He has worked with UAP for 8 years across range of projects managing a broad range of project stakeholders including clients, artists, and councils. In his current role as Managing Principal, Owen leads the business development and curatorial and design teams for Australia and the Middle East.
As Senior Curator, he works closely with artists as they create work in response to specific projects and places. He has extensive experience in the visual arts sector and understands the importance of working through the creative process collaboratively to help artists realise their creative vision. He brings a strong and nuanced voice on behalf of commissioning clients and design teams to support the creative direction of public art.
Owen spearhead’s the UAP studios, where he oversees the vision and implementation of a diverse range of projects alongside a team of curators and designers from UAP’s Australian studios. Owen has worked with a variety of clients including Charter Hall, CBUS, Lendlease, Mirvac, Investa, Dexus and ISPT developing strategies and artwork programs for public and private commercial and mixed-use places. He has led projects including Emily Floyd’s Jackalope for Jackalope Hotels, Reko Rennie’s Stolen Generation Marker in Melbourne, and Nike Savvas’ Papillon for Barangaroo Development Authority in Sydney. He has overseen the successful creative direction for Capital Metro in Canberra, Tun Razak Exchange in Kuala Lumpur, 60 Martin Place in Sydney, and 447 Collins Street in Melbourne.
With 16+ years of experience in the Visual Arts industry, Owen has developed a mixture of curatorial and artist project management experience. Immediately prior to joining UAP, he was the Editor of Artist Profile and Art Almanac magazines. In these roles, Owen curated several significant group exhibitions that toured both nationally and internationally. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Art History and Theory) from the University of Sydney.