Mark Bowers
b. 1977, St. Joseph, MI
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 into visual narratives.
My work consists of small-scale highly detailed, obsessively rendered landscapes . They are inspired by the comfort, trepidation, and beauty found in a mundane Midwestern landscape and our national political, social, and ecological dialog. 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.
My artworks 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.
b. 1977, St. Joseph, MI
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 into visual narratives.
My work consists of small-scale highly detailed, obsessively rendered landscapes . They are inspired by the comfort, trepidation, and beauty found in a mundane Midwestern landscape and our national political, social, and ecological dialog. 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.
My artworks 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.
We are currently living in a time period that parallels the heightened national anxiety from which the American Regionalist Art Movement arose. In the 1930’s as a response to the Great Depression- when farm life was moving towards cities for an industrial existence. Middle West Artists such as John Steuart Curry, Grant Wood, and Thomas Hart Benton employed the landscape and traditionalist realism to appeal to the popular American worker in their art, while strictly opposing the perceived domination of French Art- Modernism. This form of Social Realism drew attention to the everyday conditions of the working class and the poor; these artists were critical of the social structures which maintained these conditions.
In our current Post Great Recession era; social, political, and environmental divisions have created a new national anxiety. I employ the Midwestern post-industrial aged landscape(suburban) and many of the same compositional structures used by the Regionalists, such as circular edges, distorted land-forms, and competing spatial cues to move the viewer to inner world where anxiety is sensed in each of us.
Heavy Skies allude to real impending tragedies; such as global warming, climate engineering, floods, and mass shootings. Saturated colors and sometimes neon paint colors denote to digital devices, which we engage within daily as an alternative High Definition reality. The mundane, such as signs, municipal structures, fauna, and common items anchor symbolic narratives in the familiar. These narratives reject insular abstraction and are socially involved; as to prompt a folk mindfulness within the contemporary art world.
I don’t intend my images to be anymore nightmarish than waking up to our daily news. I wish this reality was surreal, but is all too real for far too many. I hope that my art represents our present day- but also imparts a dreamful glimpse of hope within.
In our current Post Great Recession era; social, political, and environmental divisions have created a new national anxiety. I employ the Midwestern post-industrial aged landscape(suburban) and many of the same compositional structures used by the Regionalists, such as circular edges, distorted land-forms, and competing spatial cues to move the viewer to inner world where anxiety is sensed in each of us.
Heavy Skies allude to real impending tragedies; such as global warming, climate engineering, floods, and mass shootings. Saturated colors and sometimes neon paint colors denote to digital devices, which we engage within daily as an alternative High Definition reality. The mundane, such as signs, municipal structures, fauna, and common items anchor symbolic narratives in the familiar. These narratives reject insular abstraction and are socially involved; as to prompt a folk mindfulness within the contemporary art world.
I don’t intend my images to be anymore nightmarish than waking up to our daily news. I wish this reality was surreal, but is all too real for far too many. I hope that my art represents our present day- but also imparts a dreamful glimpse of hope within.
Bowers stages such fascinating dramas, loaded with subtle political implications that draw me in but leave me on edge like real impending situations do, potential disasters. And just when I'm getting scared I see the shadow of a house on the sky, thus rendered a stage back-drop, and I back up to be reminded, oh yes, this framing is the proscenium of a theater or some other window to a pictured artifice, so now I'm safe enough to reflect on what this may portend. Thoughtful, dreamful work.
-Tony Phillips-
Professor Emeritus School of the Art Institute of Chicago- Painting and Drawing Department
Mark Bowers is a Chicago-based artist whose work consists of small-scale highly detailed landscape drawings and paintings. They are inspired by the comfort, trepidation, and beauty found in the Chicago Suburban landscape. Two series are on display. Bowers’ True North Painting references navigational systems to explore how unconscious systemic biases may guide our actions or direct us. His Homeland series are graphite drawings, which allude to a new heighted national anxiety experienced in our Post Great Recession era; created by social, political, and environmental divisions.
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 compasses 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.
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 compasses 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.
HOMELAND DRAWINGS
We are currently living in a time period that parallels the heightened national anxiety from which the American Regionalist Art Movement arose. In the 1930’s, as a response to the Great Depression, when farm life was moving towards cities for an industrial existence, Middle West Artists such as John Steuart Curry, Grant Wood, and Thomas Hart Benton employed the landscape and traditionalist realism to appeal to the popular American worker in their art while strictly opposing the perceived domination of Modernism. This form of Social Realism drew attention to the everyday conditions of the working class and the poor; these artists were critical of the social structures which maintained these conditions.
In our current Post Great Recession era; social, political, and environmental divisions have created a new national anxiety. I employ the Midwestern post-industrial aged landscape (suburban) and many of the same compositional structures used by the Regionalists, such as circular edges, distorted land-forms, and competing spatial cues to move the viewer to an “inner” world where anxiety is sensed in each of us. Heavy skies allude to real impending tragedies; such as global warming, climate engineering, floods, and mass shootings. The mundane, such as signs, municipal structures, fauna, and common items anchor symbolic narratives in the familiar. These tonal narratives reject the digital devices which we engage with daily as an alternative High Definition reality. The drawings are fastidiously crafted to prompt a folk mindfulness. I don’t intend my images to be anymore nightmarish than waking up to our daily news. I wish this reality was surreal, but it is all too real for far too many.
We are currently living in a time period that parallels the heightened national anxiety from which the American Regionalist Art Movement arose. In the 1930’s, as a response to the Great Depression, when farm life was moving towards cities for an industrial existence, Middle West Artists such as John Steuart Curry, Grant Wood, and Thomas Hart Benton employed the landscape and traditionalist realism to appeal to the popular American worker in their art while strictly opposing the perceived domination of Modernism. This form of Social Realism drew attention to the everyday conditions of the working class and the poor; these artists were critical of the social structures which maintained these conditions.
In our current Post Great Recession era; social, political, and environmental divisions have created a new national anxiety. I employ the Midwestern post-industrial aged landscape (suburban) and many of the same compositional structures used by the Regionalists, such as circular edges, distorted land-forms, and competing spatial cues to move the viewer to an “inner” world where anxiety is sensed in each of us. Heavy skies allude to real impending tragedies; such as global warming, climate engineering, floods, and mass shootings. The mundane, such as signs, municipal structures, fauna, and common items anchor symbolic narratives in the familiar. These tonal narratives reject the digital devices which we engage with daily as an alternative High Definition reality. The drawings are fastidiously crafted to prompt a folk mindfulness. I don’t intend my images to be anymore nightmarish than waking up to our daily news. I wish this reality was surreal, but it is all too real for far too many.