Paul Cowan Work | Artist Statement & CV | Return to Artist List
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Artist Statement
From a position, functioning as a painter is much more different now than it has ever been. With a past critique eluding to its end or death, and now more recently a sort of retaliation, its roots are deeply searching for theory and concept to ground it again to ‘painting’ and beyond that. What’s left now is either an option to function in this graveyard of painting, or to use its conventions and modes to access new grounds through a variety of mediums, etc. In my work, the painting medium is more often used as a framework or structure to function ‘within’, a context that allows me to elaborate on its tradition outside of the function of the picture’s plane. New modes are constantly being employed within painting’s field, challenging and questioning its model. I use a variety of methods to create something that resonates within paintings realm, all the while still interpreting paintings ‘functionality’ as a tool used for a discourse. In doing this, I act as a documentary maker of the medium, perpetuating it’s archive and potential. It is confirming, questioning, analyzing and modifying the very tropes and conventional tactics of the art object and the artistic practice. Through an explicit reference to the history of painting and modernism, the works here exemplify an understanding while analyzing/criticizing the very rhetoric nature of art. Through experience we understand how to experience, possibly gaining an ability to control experience, and potentially losing a variable of perspectives on the experience. It’s using aesthetic and conceptual familiarities as a way of entry for the viewer, serving as content within the context of art; paintings about painting, sculpture about sculpture.
From a position, functioning as a painter is much more different now than it has ever been. With a past critique eluding to its end or death, and now more recently a sort of retaliation, its roots are deeply searching for theory and concept to ground it again to ‘painting’ and beyond that. What’s left now is either an option to function in this graveyard of painting, or to use its conventions and modes to access new grounds through a variety of mediums, etc. In my work, the painting medium is more often used as a framework or structure to function ‘within’, a context that allows me to elaborate on its tradition outside of the function of the picture’s plane. New modes are constantly being employed within painting’s field, challenging and questioning its model. I use a variety of methods to create something that resonates within paintings realm, all the while still interpreting paintings ‘functionality’ as a tool used for a discourse. In doing this, I act as a documentary maker of the medium, perpetuating it’s archive and potential. It is confirming, questioning, analyzing and modifying the very tropes and conventional tactics of the art object and the artistic practice. Through an explicit reference to the history of painting and modernism, the works here exemplify an understanding while analyzing/criticizing the very rhetoric nature of art. Through experience we understand how to experience, possibly gaining an ability to control experience, and potentially losing a variable of perspectives on the experience. It’s using aesthetic and conceptual familiarities as a way of entry for the viewer, serving as content within the context of art; paintings about painting, sculpture about sculpture.
CV
Paul Cowan
b. 1985, Kansas City
EDUCATION:
2007
BFA, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design
EXHIBITIONS:
2010 (upcoming)
Permanent Collection, curated by Golden Age, White Flag Projects, St. Louis MO
New Work w/ Scott Cowan, Roots & Culture, Chicago IL
Variations On A Theme, Merchandise Mart, Chicago IL
New Works, Young Art, Los Angeles CA
2010
Causality Without Cause w/ Matt Stolle, Devening Projects, Chicago IL
Bad Sculpture w/ Hugh Scott-Douglas and Maxwell Simmer, Young Art, Los Angeles CA
When did you begin calling yourself… w/ Scott Cowan, Important Projects, Oakland CA
New Paintings, Next Fair / Art Chicago with Proximity Magazine, Chicago IL
Alla Prima, Golden Age, Chicago IL
Holiday Primetime In May, Primetime, Brooklyn NY
Agency at Agency, The Agency, London UK
2009 - Solo / Two Person Exhibitions
Muse About Certain Motifs, SUNY Purchase College/Bulletin Board Program, Purchase NY
Existence Value, Jettison Space, Chicago IL
You Can Build A House, The Pigeon Wing, London UK
At Them Not Through Them, Knock Knock Gallery, Chicago IL
Either Both/And Or Neither/Nor, Scott Projects, Chicago IL
2009 - Group Exhibitions
Semi-Automatic, Interview Magazine / Mondrian Hotel, Miami FL
Brâncuşi, Moore and Swayze, Project Space, Toronto ON
Reconnection: New Sculpture and Painting, Alumni Exhibit, MIAD, Milwaukee WI
Art Chicago / Next Fair, with Scott Projects, Chicago IL
2008
Art Basel NADA Fair, with Golden Age, Miami FL
Poster Market International, The Suburban, Oak Park IL
Tomorrow, Vega Estates, Chicago IL
Poster Market International, Blank Space, New York NY
The Dark Fair, Swiss Institute, with Golden Age, New York NY
2007
You Can Depend On The Sunrise, The Green Gallery, Milwaukee WI
Would You Know My Name If…, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Milwaukee WI
Milwaukee International Art Fair, Milwaukee WI
PUBLISHED WORK:
2010
New Painting & Sculpture, Kingsboro Press, New York NY
2009
The Music & The Wine, (Book of Short Stories), First Edition of 100, Self Published
Poster Insert: Paul & Scott Cowan, HARQ Magazine, Harold Arts Quarterly, Chicago IL
Paul Cowan
b. 1985, Kansas City
EDUCATION:
2007
BFA, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design
EXHIBITIONS:
2010 (upcoming)
Permanent Collection, curated by Golden Age, White Flag Projects, St. Louis MO
New Work w/ Scott Cowan, Roots & Culture, Chicago IL
Variations On A Theme, Merchandise Mart, Chicago IL
New Works, Young Art, Los Angeles CA
2010
Causality Without Cause w/ Matt Stolle, Devening Projects, Chicago IL
Bad Sculpture w/ Hugh Scott-Douglas and Maxwell Simmer, Young Art, Los Angeles CA
When did you begin calling yourself… w/ Scott Cowan, Important Projects, Oakland CA
New Paintings, Next Fair / Art Chicago with Proximity Magazine, Chicago IL
Alla Prima, Golden Age, Chicago IL
Holiday Primetime In May, Primetime, Brooklyn NY
Agency at Agency, The Agency, London UK
2009 - Solo / Two Person Exhibitions
Muse About Certain Motifs, SUNY Purchase College/Bulletin Board Program, Purchase NY
Existence Value, Jettison Space, Chicago IL
You Can Build A House, The Pigeon Wing, London UK
At Them Not Through Them, Knock Knock Gallery, Chicago IL
Either Both/And Or Neither/Nor, Scott Projects, Chicago IL
2009 - Group Exhibitions
Semi-Automatic, Interview Magazine / Mondrian Hotel, Miami FL
Brâncuşi, Moore and Swayze, Project Space, Toronto ON
Reconnection: New Sculpture and Painting, Alumni Exhibit, MIAD, Milwaukee WI
Art Chicago / Next Fair, with Scott Projects, Chicago IL
2008
Art Basel NADA Fair, with Golden Age, Miami FL
Poster Market International, The Suburban, Oak Park IL
Tomorrow, Vega Estates, Chicago IL
Poster Market International, Blank Space, New York NY
The Dark Fair, Swiss Institute, with Golden Age, New York NY
2007
You Can Depend On The Sunrise, The Green Gallery, Milwaukee WI
Would You Know My Name If…, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Milwaukee WI
Milwaukee International Art Fair, Milwaukee WI
PUBLISHED WORK:
2010
New Painting & Sculpture, Kingsboro Press, New York NY
2009
The Music & The Wine, (Book of Short Stories), First Edition of 100, Self Published
Poster Insert: Paul & Scott Cowan, HARQ Magazine, Harold Arts Quarterly, Chicago IL
(Installation View) Causality Without Cause, 2010 - Gallery Chair, Hat on Chair, Oil on Canvas
Untitled, 2010 - Oil on Canvas on pedestal and door frame, 12” x 9” (each)
Untitled, 2010 - Oil on Canvas, 12” x 9”
Untitled, 2010 - Oil on Canvas, 52” x 42”
Untitled, 2010 - Oil on Canvas, 48” x 39”
Untitled, 2010 - Oil on Canvas, 20” x 16”
(Installation View) Untitled, 2010 - Oil on Canvas, 40” x 33” & Untitled, 2010 - Copper Tubing on Stretched Canvas and Wood Pedestal
Untitled, 2010 - Oil on Canvas, 33” x 26”
Untitled, 2010 - Oil on Canvas, 16” x 13”
Untitled, 2010 - Oil on Canvas, 16” x 13”
Untitled, 2010 - Oil on Canvas, 25” x 20”
Untitled, 2010 - Clay on Canvas, 40” x 33”
Untitled, 2010 - Clay on Canvas, 20” x 16”
(Installation View) 2009, Cast Concrete, Acrylic on Canvas, Gallery Chair, Oil on Canvas, Copper Tube on Stretched Canvas
(Installation View), Existence Value, 2009 - Enamel on Canvas, Enamel on Bricks. (Installed with black enamel on hands.)
(Installation View), Existence Value, 2009 - Enamel on Clay, Canvas, Table, Beer, Playing Cards, Clay Vase and Dish, Wooden Reeds, Fresh Fruit and Pedestals. (Installed with black enamel on hands.)
Existence Value, 2009 - Enamel on Clay Vase and Dish, Wooden Reeds, Fresh Fruit and Pedestal
Capriccio, 2010 - Enamel on Copper Tubing on Stretched Canvas and Wine Crates
Muse About Certain Motifs, 2010 - Acrylic on Canvas, 20” x 16”
(Installation View) 2009 - Enamel on Clay, Wood Plinth, Oil on Canvas, Shoes, Stool