Keynote Speaker for the American Women Artists Symposium

I was so honored to be invited as the Keynote Speaker to conclude their wonderful multi-day symposium gathering of women artists in Nashville last month:

“Since its inception in 1990, American Women Artists has worked diligently to bring women artists to the attention of the art world through museum exhibitions, juried competitions in leading galleries around the country, symposiums, workshops, and mentorship. Our goal is to increase the number of professional opportunities for women in the visual fine arts that lead to greater inclusion.”
— AWA

You can find out much more about this lovely organization at this page.

Thanks for watching!

New podcast episode, where I talk about resiliency and longevity.

I am absolutely thrilled to have met the women who run the podcast, “Beyond the Studio”: Nicole Mueller & Amanda Adams. They invited me on to discuss all things related to the new book, “Last Artist Standing: Living & Sustaining a Creative Life over 50,” and also our new nonprofit, the Institute for Sustained Creativity.

These women are amazing and I highly recommend their work and this podcast:

Beyond the Studio Podcast

Enjoy!

…and thanks so much for listening!

In Conversation with MOAD Executive Director and Chief Curator, Amy Galpin

If you are planning on attending the festivities and fairs during Art Basel Miami the first week of December, please stop by for this special event at the Museum of Art and Design Miami Dade College on Saturday, December 6th, 11am - Noon:

“Join us for a special opportunity to hear from artist Sharon Louden in the Knight Skylight Gallery at the Freedom Tower at 11:00 AM on December 6, 2025. Louden will be joined by Amy Galpin, Executive Director and Head Curator, Museum of Art and Design, Miami Dade College.

View Louden’s most recent commission, Windows of Freedom Tower, created in honor of the centennial of the Freedom Tower, a national historic landmark.

This reflective sculpture includes 101 sheets of aluminum and reimagines a room that was once a busy workroom for the Miami Daily News.”
— Museum of Art & Design Miami Dade College

Windows of Freedom Tower
Museum of Art and Design Miami Dade College
Freedom Tower, Miami, FL

I will be there at the museum basically everyday that week, Wednesday Dec 3rd - Saturday Dec 6th. The wonderful and awesome Amy Galpin is planning other events that week to celebrate this piece, so please check back here for updates.

For more information on the conversation happening in the gallery Saturday morning (12/6/25), please visit this page:

https://moadmdc.org/programs-events/artist-sharon-louden-in-conversation-with-dr-amy-galpin-moad-executive-director-and-chief-curator

Hope to see you there!

Solo Exhibition in Asheville, NC

I recently opened a new exhibition at Tracey Morgan Gallery in Asheville, NC, and I am so grateful to the wonderful Tracey for this opportunity. Entitled “Barriers & Boundaries, it runs from October 3rd to November 22nd in downtown Asheville.

Prior to the opening, I also conducted a small Conversation Book Tour event for my third book, “Last Artist Standing: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life Over 50.” I met such wonderful artists and other locals there, and this community is thriving after the horrible damage done by the hurricane last year.

The exhibition consists of drawings (“Barriers to Entry”), paintings (“The Barriers”), and installation (“Barriers to Entry”).

I hope you can stop by to see the show if you’re in Ashville!

Tracey Morgan Gallery
October 3rd

“Last Artist Standing: Living & Sustaining a Creative Life Over 50”

Barriers & Boundaries

New Permanent Site-Specific Suspended Aluminum Museum Installation

I am thrilled to finally begin to speak about my first permanent museum commissioned work at the Museum of Art & Design (MOAD), Miami Dade College. Currently being installed in the iconic Freedom Tower in Miami in honor of its 100th anniversary, I am working closely with my team of ten assistants on-site, building the suspended aluminum sculpture piece-by-piece over the course of a month.

I am so honored to have been invited to contribute to this important Miami milestone and look forward to sharing this piece with the Miami community and beyond. The opening will be sometime in September, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, you can read more about this very important project below.

Thank you!

Knight Skylight Gallery
October 2025

“The Freedom Tower stands at the crossroads of Miami’s past, present and future. With this gift, we are not only helping to preserve a landmark of profound historical significance but also ensuring that every Miamian can see themselves reflected in its exhibitions, programs and cultural expression.”
— Maribel Pérez Wadsworth, president and CEO of the Knight Foundation

As part of the tower’s grand reopening in September, the gallery will debut with “Refuge and Reflection,” a signature exhibition exploring themes of community, resilience, memory and belonging through art, multimedia, oral histories and interactive storytelling.

The Knight Skylight Gallery will also host a sound and light installation and a wall-sized projection mapping Miami’s landscape and evolution. A sculpture by artist Sharon Louden will anchor the space, while a broadsheet publication produced three times a year will spotlight Miami stories.

The Knight Series at the Skylight Gallery, developed in collaboration with Miami Dade College, will feature interdisciplinary events inspired by the tower’s legacy in journalism, civic dialogue and the arts.

The Freedom Tower’s centennial represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to restore its iconic Mediterranean Revival architecture while launching a new chapter as a vibrant civic and cultural hub, said Madeline Pumariega, the college’s president. In addition to the Knight Skylight Gallery, the reimagined tower will include new exhibitions that document its original role as the home of the Miami Daily News and, later, the Cuban Refugee Center, which welcomed over 400,000 Cuban exiles fleeing the island, she added.

Press Release.

Freedom Tower, Downtown Miami, FL

Productive 2025 Ahead!

Writing on January 1st of any year is always invigorating, while also providing a time to pause and reflect.

Cover image by Jaq Chartier

I am beyond thrilled that the third book in my trilogy of artist essay books in the “Living & Sustaining a Creative Life” series will be published this year.

“Last Artist Standing shares the essays of the lives of 31 artists over the age of 50, how they have sustained their creative lives, what paths they have led, and shows who contemporary artists are today. They are mentors to other artists, having learned how to thrive and be creative through decades of life's travails.”

We are already planning an extensive book tour, so stay tuned for a “Live / Sustain” conversation in a neighborhood near you!

You can pre-order both at the University of Chicago Press website as well as at Amazon. Thank you!

(Clockwise from top left) Patricia Waller, Ariane Lignier, Hrag Vartanian (Photo credit: Kevin Miyazaki for Rabkin Foundation), and me!

Finally, I will be appearing on this lovely panel, Wednesday, January 15th, from 6:30-8:00pm, at C24 Gallery in Chelsea, NYC:

Child’s Play: An Investigation of Violence, Desires, and Taboos Through Art

An exhibition and panel discussion exploring the methods and materiality of addressing challenging topics through artistic expression.

The Gallery’s current solo exhibition, Child’s Play, by Berlin-based crochet artist Patricia Waller will serve as a jumping-off point for a conversation about the use of unconventional methods to address inconvenient, difficult topics, including violence against children and animals. The artist will be present and joined by Hrag Vartanian (Editor-in-chief and co-founder of Hyperallergic) and Ariane Lignier, (Communications Officer for the UN's Office of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict), and the panel will be moderated by Sharon Louden (Artist, advocate, community builder and Executive Director of Women's Studio Workshop).

You can register to attend the panel discussion here.

Hope to see you out there at any of these events upcoming in 2025!

THANK YOU.

Busy Winter and Spring!

The past few months have been bustling and I’ve been meaning to share three news items regarding what I’ve been up to since my solo exhibition at signs & symbols in NYC concluded in early February.

—> I was given the opportunity to be profiled in a paid video post that is appearing on The New Yorker website for an entire year. In it, I talk about artists sustaining creative lives and the role that mentorship plays in our community. The producers were kind enough to embrace my ideas for this piece, which included bringing in other artists to share their stories. I was also able to mention our new Institute for Sustained Creativity (ISC) that we’re in the process of developing and putting into the world.

On my Instagram page, I speak more in-depth about the process in which this came about on. Enjoy!


Profile of Sharon by The New Yorker Brand Studio focused on her mentoring initiatives, models of generosity, and ISC. 
February 2024

Accompanying interview on The New Yorker can be viewed here.

—> Vinson and I were lucky to be invited on the long-running “Bad at Sports” podcast, hosted by the inimitable Duncan MacKenzie. We were in Sheridan, Wyoming when this interview took place, where we were helping to facilitate a state-wide grant for artists (mentioned in the next item below).

As always, the conversation with Duncan was hilarious (it was all his fault!). We discussed our new ISC, how we were helping artists in Wyoming, and my elation with finally finishing the manuscript to my third collection of essays by artists (this time over 50!): Last Artist Standing: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life Over 50. More on the new book later this summer.

Episode 866: Sharon Louden & Vinson Valega
Bad at Sports
“Live from WY! The return of art world mega force Sharon Louden and music Impresario Vinson Valega! We talk Sustaining your Creative Life and the Institute for it! Always working to better your artistic life! Get your Art World hustle on.”
— Bad at Sports

To learn more about Duncan and his jolly cohorts at Bad at Sports, please visit their website, which has been producing hundreds of these podcast interviews with artists for more than ten years!

—> Last but definitely not least, as a consultant since December I have been helping facilitate a state-wide grant in Wyoming that helps artists all across the state. Called the Wyoming Innovation Partnership (WIP), this impressive $1.1 million funding source is being used to build out the state’s creative economy by providing professional practice resources and mentorship to over 100 artists in five different cities. Vinson and I have been traveling throughout the state working hand-in-hand with Beth Venn, the Executive Director of the Neltje Center for Excellence in Creativity and the Arts, and her team:

“The grant doubles the state’s annual funding for the arts, provides artists with resources and makes significant ‘seed money’ available for arts-related entities. These will, in turn, continue to elevate the level of arts engagement here. It’s a win for everyone dedicated to the arts in Wyoming.”
— Beth Venn

We conducted workshops in Laramie, Fort Washakie, Sheridan, Powell, and Rock Springs between December and earlier this month. The amazing artists we have met in all disciplines (visual art, music, dance, theater, writing) have been truly inspiring. It has been an honor to help these 100 individuals strengthen their artistic practice through my efforts working with Beth’s team, as well as by assembling 34 mentors across Wyoming and the rest of the country that are helping them craft their creative enterprise proposals in the hopes of landing one of the 10 seed-grants worth $25,000 each.

There is a possibility the WIP grant will be renewed for next year, providing incredible resources for the next 100 Wyoming artists. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, I just wanted to share a few photos of Neltjie’s home outside of Sheridan where we stayed for the week between workshops in Sheridan and Powell last month. Neltjie was an incredible artist herself, and only just passed away in her late eighties a few years ago. She helped so many artists in her 40+ years in Wyoming. You can learn more about her at her website.

One of Neltjie’s living rooms at her house, which is now the HQ of the Neltje Center for Excellence in Creativity and the Arts

Adjoining grounds.

Neltjie’s studio.

Solo exhibition, NYC: "Barriers to Entry"

I am very excited to show my newest work in my first exhibition in New York City in eight years. Running until March 2nd at signs & symbols Gallery in the Lower East Side (Manhattan), it is my third iteration of this site-specific installation using colored vinyl, highly-reflective aluminum, and drawings.

Barriers to Entry is a series of installations that reflect on the lack of inclusion within historically exclusionary spaces. Previous exhibitions took place last summer 2022 in Breckenridge, CO, and Kingston, NY.

As a part of the programming accompanying the exhibition, the gallery and I will host gatherings of artists entitled Needs, Wants and Gives. These workshops are open to the public and are aimed at building community and sharing opportunities. Thursdays in February, 6-8pm: 2/15, 2/22 & 2/29. More info here.

signs and symbols
249 East Houston Street
New York, NY
info@signsandsymbols.art
(917) 880-8953

Barriers to Entry
signs & symbols Gallery

Barriers to Entry (detail)
signs & symbols Gallery

Barriers to Entry (Detail)
Breck Create, Breckenridge, CO (June-Sep 2022)

Barriers to Entry (Detail)
Breck Create, Breckenridge, CO (June-Sep 2022)

Barriers to Entry (detail)
Artport, Kingston, NY (July - Sep 2022)

Art museums and institutions have historically posed barriers to entry (whether physical, financial, or psychological) to both artists and visitors who do not represent the dominant culture. Louden defies the historic exclusivity of this space by transforming its structure and topography, and through the presence and playful use of materials not traditionally associated with fine art. Rather than limit one’s field of vision, Barriers to Entry creates an infinite number of focal points with which viewers can engage, making room for as many perspectives as possible in an inclusive artistic act. — Avery Glassman, Curator, Breck Create

"Drawn" Group Show at Delaware Art Museum

Many decades ago, one of the most important figures in my life came to my Center Street studio in Manhattan (early 1990s). Wynn Kramarsky was a HUGE supporter of both established and emerging artists during his lifetime. Thus began a long mentorship (and friendship) with Wynn.

In 2009, he and his wife decided to start gifting their collection to museums around the country:

Drawn celebrates the important gift of contemporary drawings from Sally and Wynn Kramarsky. These patrons have championed artists and works on paper, specifically, through their collection development, New York City exhibitions, and generous donations. In 2009, the Delaware Art Museum joined a list of public institutions throughout the United States to receive gifts from the donors. This selection brings together artists separated by generations and genres, grounded in the foundational practice of drawing. The distinct artistry of each work exemplifies the diversity and range of non-representational contemporary works on paper.

I am honored that this old drawing is now on exhibition there until the end of the year:

“Tight” (1993)
Ink and graphite on double sided mylar,
11 × 8 1/2 in

I still miss Wynn to this day, and think about him often.

Community on view at the National Gallery of Art

I am delighted to share that a painting from my 2013 series entitled, Community, is currently on view in the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art through September 10th in an exhibition entitled “The Interior Life: Recent Acquisitions,” organized by Molly Donovan, Curator of Contemporary Art. This painting joins one of my drawings and animations of that are already a part of the National Gallery of Art permanent collection.

Community
Oil and enamel on stretched paper, on panel
20 x 28 x 1.5 in

March 17 - September 10, 2023

“The Interior Life: Recent Acquisitions displays a selection of artworks that have been added to the National Gallery’s collection of contemporary and modern art over the last three years. Through allusions to the body, community, and everyday spaces, as well as in more abstract works, these twenty-five artists creatively draw upon their interior lives to offer rich perspectives on life’s challenges and possibilities.”

East Building, Mezzanine

For more information, please visit the NGA website.

THANK YOU!