Paula Crown

Artist, Activist

Paula Crown is a multimedia artist with a practice encompassing drawing, painting, video, and sculpture. Crown rigorously incorporates cutting-edge technology, social activism, collaboration, and a commitment to sustainability in her studio practice. 

Crown earned her M.F.A. in painting and drawing in 2012 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Solo exhibitions include the Aspen Institute (2013), Dallas Contemporary (2014), Marlborough Gallery, New York (2015), The Goss-Michael Foundation, Dallas (2016), 10 Hanover, London (2017), Studio Cannaregio, Venice (2018) concurrent with the 16th Venice Architectural Biennale, and Fort Gansevoort, New York (2018). 

Crown’s recent public art installations include; JOKESTER in Aspen, CO (2018), Milwaukee, WI (2020); and the Miami Design District, Miami, FL (2018); #solotogether (Messages for the City), Times Square Arts, New York, NY, which traveled to the Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC (2020); and What Are You For?, For Freedoms Awakening Billboard, Boston, MA (2020). 

 She has participated in several group exhibitions internationally, including For Freedoms at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY (2016); Mount Analogue at Darrow Contemporary, curated by Neville Wakefield, Aspen, CO (2016); IN THIS HOUSE, a group exhibition curated by Michelle Grabner at the Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL (2018); For Freedoms: Where Do We Go From Here? At The International Center for Photography, New York, NY (2019); 

Sculpturally Distant at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Aspen, CO (2020) and This is America | USA Today at Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, NL (2020).  

 Crown’s works are in numerous public and top-100 private collections including Agnes Gund Collection, NY, Tishman Speyer Collection, NY, and The Goss-Michael Foundation in Dallas, TX. 

 In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed Crown to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. She is a member of the board of trustees of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where she chairs the Education Committee. She also serves on the Aspen Institute Committee of the Arts.  

 Born in Marblehead, Mass., the artist lives and works in Aspen, Colorado and Chicago, Illinois