Tracey Morgan Gallery is pleased to present “Barriers & Boundaries,” a solo exhibition by Sharon Louden showcasing three interrelated bodies of work — paintings from The Barriers series (2023), selections from the Untitled series (2010), and a new wall installation featuring works on paper from Louden’s ongoing and current series, Barriers to Entry (2023–25). Together, these series trace Louden’s evolving vision, revealing a rich dialogue between past and present, painting and installation.
Louden’s work investigates limits—both actual and psychological—and the space in which constraint becomes possibility. The Barriers paintings evoke edges, thresholds, and the complex interplay between openness and division. The Untitled series explores fragile architectural form, color, and gentle quietness in the gestures themselves. The wall installation in Barriers to Entry transforms one of the gallery’s walls into a site of engagement, inviting viewers to navigate, literally reflect, and imagine themselves in a new environment.
“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, former Curator, from the Barriers to Entry exhibition at Breck Create.
Through these interconnected bodies of work, Louden deepens her dialogue with space and movement — exploring how lines and forms can both define and dissolve boundaries. She invites viewers not just to look, but to inhabit: to pause at thresholds, to question what it means to enter, and to reflect on how boundaries shape identity, perception, and belonging. As in her advocacy work, Louden shapes space as a generous invitation — creating illusive realms where others can breathe, move, and find their own place within the dialogue.
Sharon Louden wears many interchangeable hats: artist, educator, advocate, consultant, community builder, founder and director of the Institute for Sustained Creativity, and editor of the Living and Sustaining a Creative Life series of books. As a changemaker, Louden amplifies unheard voices and advances meaningful opportunities for artists across all disciplines toward sustaining their creative lives. Louden earned herBFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA from the Yale University School of Art. Louden’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including presentations at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, The Drawing Center, Carnegie MellonUniversity, Weisman Art Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Weatherspoon Art Museum, and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, among many others. Her work is held in major public and private collections such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Neuberger Museum of Art, the Arkansas Arts Center, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Weatherspoon Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington in Seattle, and the University of Wyoming Art Museum in Laramie, WY, among others.
In addition to her studio practice, Louden has created numerous site-specific permanent public and private installations across the United States. Her recent projects include works in New York City, Miami, Oklahoma City, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and, most recently, the Freedom Tower at Miami Dade College, which will open to the public on October 15, 2025, and remain on permanent view.
Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Art in America, The Washington Post, Sculpture Magazine, ARTnews, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and numerous other publications. She has participated in residencies at Tamarind Institute, UrbanGlass, Franconia Sculpture Park, the Society of the Four Arts, and Art Omi.
Louden is also an active advocate for artists. She is currently on her third national conversation tour in support of her latest book, Last Artist Standing (Intellect Books and University of Chicago Press), which continues her commitment to amplifying artists’ voices and sharing strategies for sustainable creative lives. You can follow her current tour visiting 80 places between September 2025-December, 2027 here.
She lives and works in New York City, continuing to create, write, and champion artists around the world.