Patty Carroll, Mad Mauve, 2018 Bill Owens, Richie, 1971
PDNB Gallery’s two solo exhibitions by gallery artists Patty Carroll and Bill Owens deserve to be seen. The first exhibition, Anonymous Woman, marks the first solo show for Chicago-based Patty Carroll in the celebrated all-photographs gallery. Concurrently, Bill Owens has had a large presence at PDNB since the early 2000’s when the gallery first featured his groundbreaking series from the early 1970’s titled Suburbia. The exhibition marks a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking work of Suburbia. Both exhibitions continue through February 12.
In recent years, Patty Carroll (b. 1946, Chicago, Illinois) has explored the traditional and contemporary “housewife” role, by creating scenes of exaggerated chaos that often consumes her subject. Pots and pans, shoes and flowers, excessively colorful drapery, cakes and pies, 1950’s furniture and decorative objects overwhelm the female subject in the scene. The series is appropriately titled, Anonymous Women: Domestic Demise. Patty states, “She is both a victim of her obsessions, activities, and circumstances as well as the invisible creator of such; both satisfying and problematic, pathetic and humorous.” The images are mostly shown with humor, but sometimes the subject is consumed, and the effect is terrifying.
Bill Owens, Tupperware Party, 1971 Bill Owens, 4th of July block party, 1971
In conversation with suburban culture, Bill Owens (b. 1938, San Jose, California) was one of the early documentarians of the genre. In the late 1960’s, Owens had an epiphany to document America’s movement into the suburbs of northern California. He made a list of what he wanted to document: a Tupperware party, shag carpeting, a newly minted home with a few pieces of furniture, a family barbeque, a new lawn being rolled out, Christmas decorations, overview images of cul-de-sacs, New Development billboards, and July 4th block parties and parades. These photographs were included in the seminal 1971 publication Suburbia, which became an important sociological study and photography series that launched Bill Owens’ art career. In 2001, Suburbia was included in the list of 101 most influential photography books published in the 20th Century.
The gallery has selected prints for sale on their website as well as signed books representing both artists’ exhibitions, something you’ll want on your coffee tables or bookshelves for generations to come.