Liana Owad is an artist working with traditional and contemporary mediums to create sculptures and works on paper. Her work explores the domestic space and addresses the ideas of comfort and confinement in the home. She focuses on certain objects from or habits of routine daily life in her sculptures, prints, and drawings. She finds the physical manipulation of materials and learning new fabrication methods the driving force of her work.

“The essentials during the COVID lock-down varied greatly by household. These items ranged from food to entertainment to cleaning products. They were items that allowed us to sustain life as well as occupy our time. For many of us, we ordered items online we typically bought in stores. This trend has continued as the pandemic stretches well into a third year and the act of ordering essential items has become more our way of life. The work in The Essential is a collection of both cardboard and plastic packaging from store purchased and ordered items roughly over the past year that I began just after the birth of my daughter. She was born in the height of an omicron variant spike in January 2022. As my husband and I navigated as new parents in the mists of a pandemic, we chose to order even more of our immediate needs. This allowed us to greatly limit our exposure risks and unintentionally lead to this collection. It has grown and taken shape as our essentials have evolved.”