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Mark BowersTrue North - Orientation, Surreal Sky with Billboard, Rainbow and Fireworks2020
2020
$1,650
£1,256.47
€1,434.81
CA$2,318.45
A$2,543.79
CHF 1,339.94
MX$30,261.01
NOK 17,164.52
SEK 15,673.55
DKK 10,719.43
About the Item
"True North - Orientation" is a worms-eye view of a jumbled sky bursting with both fireworks and a rainbow. The surreal quality of the imagery makes the viewer question reality. The ellipsed edges confirm the scene as an inner vision rather than a window on the world. The foreground billboards add another dimensional question to the landscape. The painting itself is painted on a handmade wooden panel with beautifully finished edges so no frame is needed.
Mark Bowers
True North - Orientation
oil on panel
9h x 12w in
22.86h x 30.48w cm
MJB012
TRUE NORTH PAINTINGS
Unconscious systemic biases may guide our actions or direct us---similar to the human construct of “True North”, which holds to coordinate systems. The Earth’s “Magnetic North” moves over time according to polar shifts; flux and correction is enabled by polarity. In these paintings (Privilege, Orientation, Belief, Identity, Equity), I use compositional elements referencing nautical com- passes to suggest that society must navigate not within systems, but naturally through positive relationships and change. I hope that my art represents our present day - but also imparts a dreamful glimpse of hope and faith within.
Explanation: A magnetic compass does not point toward the true North Pole of the Earth. Rather, it more closely points toward the North Magnetic Pole of the Earth. The North Magnetic Pole is currently located in northern Canada. It wanders in an elliptical path each day, and moves, on the average, more than forty meters northward each day. Evidence indicates that the North Magnetic Pole has wandered over much of the Earth's surface in the 4.5 billion years since the Earth formed.
Mark Bowers- Artist Statement
With the depiction of landscape playing such a central role in the history of North American art, it seemed to offer many of the critical possibilities I was looking for, and it felt more and more like something I have always known. Something I could easily apply, stage, and manipulate as a diary.
My work consists of small-scale highly detailed landscape paintings. They are inspired by the comfort, trepidation, and beauty found in the mundane Chicago Suburbs. I combine nature, decorative house wares, municipal structures, and personal artifacts to hint at current life and future implications in the orchestration of these elements. Each work in the series is a portrait of a search for markers on a journey, an attempt to learn from what is palpable and to appreciate the intangible. The paintings are meant to suggest the truth in the un-idealized moment--the actual truth only exists off the edges of my canvas, off stage, and in the experience of the viewer. Painting the objects in these compositions is like positioning characters on stage in a play, each adding to the dramatization
Mark Bowers
b. 1977
St. Joseph, MI
Exhibitions
2019 Earth Wind Fire, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL
2018 SOFA CHICAGO, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL
2017 Distortion, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL
2016 SOFA CHICAGO, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
2015 Ann Nathan Gallery Satellite Exhibition, New Trier High School, Winnetka, IL
2013 American Painting Today: Physical and Visceral, Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, MI
2012 Fort Wayne Art Museum, Contemporary Realism Biennial, Fort Wayne, IN
Rockford Art Museum Midwestern Biennial, Rockford, IL
Ann Brierly Gallery, Winnetka, IL
2009 Art Chicago, Represented by Ann Nathan Gallery, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL
Ann Brierly Gallery, Winnetka, IL
2007 Beverly Arts Center Biennial, Chicago, IL
Ann Brierly Gallery, Winnetka, IL
2005 Ann Brierly Gallery, Winnetka, IL
2003 Ann Brierly Gallery, Winnetka, IL
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2001 The Box Factory Gallery, St. Joseph, MI
2000 John G. Blank Center for the Arts, Michigan City, IN
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Awards
2005-6 Arts Recognition Award and talent Search Program, National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts
2002 Rhode Island School of Design, Department of Art Education, Leonore Pernaveau Gerlach Memorial Scholarship
1996 Michigan State University, Creative Arts Scholarship
Residency
2012-13 Artist in Residence, The Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forrest, IL
2010 Frankel Anderson Fellow, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2009 Artist in Residence, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
Professional Experiences
2003-present
Tenured Visual Arts Educator, New Trier Township High School District, Winnetka, IL
2001 Manager of Classroom Programs/Preparator, South Bend Regional Museum of Art, SBRMA, South Bend, IN
Education
2003 MAT w/honors, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2000 BFA w/honors, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
- Creator:Mark Bowers (1977, American)
- Creation Year:2020
- Dimensions:Height: 9 in (22.86 cm)Width: 12 in (30.48 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Chicago, IL
- Reference Number:Seller: MJB0121stDibs: LU55437308442
Mark Bowers
There has always been timelessness in the appreciation of landscape painting, and at times an almost visceral or spiritual response. However, the contemporary quotidian landscape seems striped of some of these earlier qualities—it is what I see and drive through daily. In this environment, I search for the critical possibilities, vignettes I can easily apply, stage, and manipulate as a diary. My work consists of small-scale highly detailed landscape paintings. They are inspired by the comfort, trepidation, and beauty found in the mundane Chicago Suburban existence. I combine nature, decorative house wares, municipal structures, and personal artifacts to hint at current life and future implications in the orchestration of these elements. Each work in the series is a portrait of a search for markers on a journey, an attempt to learn from what is palpable and to appreciate the intangible. The paintings are meant to suggest the truth in the un-idealized moment--the actual truth only exists off the edges of my canvas, off stage, and in the experience of the viewer. Drawing the objects in these paintings is like positioning characters on stage in a play, each adding to the dramatization. For example, the sky’s ‘role’ embodies a duality of expansive hopefulness and luminous foreshadowing; smoke is the symbol for the unknown, while water towers denote conjured romantic outcomes, as shadows lure the impractical. They embody the background and visual noise of an anxiety within the consolation of present day living.
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Education
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School of the Art Institute of Chicago – Chicago, IL
Solo Exhibitions
2016 Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO
William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO
2015 Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO
2014 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Tucson, AZ
Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO
2013 Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO
2012 Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO
William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO
2011 Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO
2010 Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL
Richard Demato Fine Arts Gallery - Sag Harbor, NY
William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO
2009 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Tucson, AZ
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO
2008 Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL
William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO
2007 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Santa Fe, NM
Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO
2006 Tory Folliard Gallery - Milwaukee, WI
William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO
2005 Lisa Kurts Gallery - Memphis, TN
Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL
2005 Philip Slein Gallery - St. Louis, MO
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO
2004 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Santa Fe, NM
William Havu Gallery - Denver, CO
2003 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Tucson, AZ
Lisa Kurts Gallery - Memphis, TN
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO
2002 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Santa Fe, NM
Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL
Perimeter Gallery - New York, NY
2001 J Mark Sublette Gallery - Tucson, AZ
J Mark Sublette Gallery - Santa Fe, NM
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO
2000 Charlene Cody Gallery - Santa Fe, NM
Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL
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1999 Charlene Cody Gallery - Santa Fe, NM
Elliot Smith Contemporary Art - St. Louis, MO
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art - Kansas City, MO
1998 Charlene Cody Gallery - Santa Fe, NM
Elliot Smith Contemporary Art - St. Louis, MO
Leedy-Voulkos Art Center Gallery - Kansas City, MO
Perimeter Gallery - Chicago, IL
1996 Grand Arts - Kansas City, MO
1994 Gallery V - Kansas City, MO
1993 Sean Kelly Gallery - Kansas City, MO
1991 Tribal Textile Gallery - Kansas City, MO
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2018 Portraits and Places: Select works from Gallery Victor Armendariz, curated by Corporate Art Advisory, Metropolitan Capital Bank, Chicago, IL
Art Hamptons, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Bridgehampton, NY
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