NEW RELEASE
SHANE BOWDEN
SHANE BOWDEN
BFA - MFA - AIPP
BORN MARCH 7, 1974 in Brisbane Australia
Lives and Works in Sydney - Australia, Tokyo - Japan, San Diego - USA, and Camogli - Italy.
Shane Bowden is a Neo Expressionist painter, artist and printmaker. He is well known around the globe for his vibrant, colorful pop art silkscreen works reminiscent of Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, particularly in Japan. A mercurial figure, he eludes public apprehension & definitions by constantly shifting styles & adhering to his own intuitive program of freedom & novelty of execution & themes.
Synoptic flashing juxtapositions of silk screened imagery nostalgically recall the visual stratagems of the sixties; the collage techniques & unexpected material contrasts here & there, deliberately untidy contours & lavish paint smears meters long in these new combinations remind us that his works continue to bridge the gap between action painting & Pop Art as well as the seminal gap between art & life which he has so compellingly carved out for himself.
After a successful career as a musician and vocalist in the 1990’s and early 2000’s in the USA, Shane was approached by Australian photographer Peter Lik to run his growing USA retail art galleries and fine art production facility from 2005 to 2008 as CEO.
He returned to Australia in 2009 and went back to work as a professional artist full-time.
He was an Archibald prize finalist in 2010 with a controversial portrait of Australian TV personality Steve Jacobs, that didn’t even have a face in the composition. Another portrait titled ‘I am David’ also raised eyebrows as a finalist in the 2010 Doug Moran Portrait prize and again in 2011 with celebrity publicist Max Markson.
In 2013 he made the move back to the USA. After a brief time in Hawaii, he settled in San Diego where he opened his own galleries and signed an exclusive multi million dollar partnership deal with a Japanese company. Another licensing deal in 2017 saw his artwork distributed and merchandised with Walmart, Martha Stewart and the T.J Max group. His creative output of artwork at this time was both prodigious & astonishing.
“Work is my therapy & drive. I don’t know anybody who loves painting & art as much as I do. It give’s me such pleasure with massive highs & low’s. I truly feel alive. It separates me from reality into not having to deal with the unnecessary shit that is thrust upon us in real life.”
During these years in the USA his appeal and collectability grew significantly with many notable galleries and celebrity collectors around the globe purchasing works for their collections. Some of the notable collections are Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, LACMA, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Mori Art Museum- Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo and the Bromer Kunst in Switzerland.
The growing demand and endless work, eventually started to take its toll on Shane and in April 2018, he underwent a major heart operation in San Diego California.
“ I had a built a commercial monster, and it wasn’t everything that I wanted out of art and life. The success and money takes you in directions that you don’t want to go, but you don’t know you’re there until it’s too late.”
With a new appreciation for life and doing the art he truly loves doing again, he is looking forward to a new period in his career.
CONTACT.