An Online Art Gallery and Consulting Service

EDWARD "EDDIE" BOWEN

Bio data:
Born 10 November 1963, Trinidad
Boarding school in the U.K. 1972 - 1981

TERTIARY ART EDUCATION:
Croydon College of Design and Technology - one year Foundation Course 1981 – ‘82, followed by 3 Year HnD (Higher National Diploma UK) 1982 – ’85, in Painting and Printmaking, graduated with Distinction.

Returned to Trinidad in 1985, formed Studio, career based in Trinidad to the present day.

THE VISUAL ARTS ENVIRONMENT (VAE) 1987 – 1991:
Formed as a collaborative enterprise with colleague/artist, Steve Ouditt, in the late eighties; an orchestrated and planned, experimental series of workshops and classes in the visual arts, combining the academic and professional attitudes of then designer and fine artist, in a comprehensive approach to art learning and tuition. The program was enormously successful, including numerous visits to the workshops’ program by local practicing visual artists as part of the curriculum, and heralded the formation of many new younger careers in the visual arts.

CROSSOVER DESIGN LTD 1990 – 1991:
The Bowen Ouditt collaboration continued into a professional design framework, employing past students as graphic designers in studio graphics, advertising and marketing. Creative directions and commissioned works also included design consultancy, corporate id, spectacle, interiors, signage, object and furniture design.

EXHIBITION HISTORY: (in brief)
Over twenty individual one man shows locally almost annually since 1986 including numerous studio shows, many international group exhibitions –
GALLERY 1234 – Hotel Normandie, Port of Spain, 1986. First one man show.
AQUARELA GALLERIES, 1a Dere St PoS – three one man shows in late eighties, early nineties
IFA GALLERY, Bonn, Germany – “7 Trinidad Artists” (sponsored by the German Gov/Aquarela Galleries)
CCA7 (www.cca7.org) - artist in residency on two occasions, exhibitions on two occasions with major series of works, “The Lessons in Colonialism” 2000, “9 x 5” 2005 - selection committee for incoming residency appointments, art education advisor and consultant) 2000 – 2005 SANTO DOMINGO BIENALE 1994
“the architect of impossible physics” @ FREVD’S, 198 Shaftesbury Ave., London - 1994

“the architect of impossible physics”
“Two devices for the repair and restoration of angels’ wings”

DOCUMENTA 1994
SAO PAULO BIENALE 2002 (selected worldwide invitational - Alfons Hug, Curator, chosen representative from TT)
LAS POLITICAS DE LA DIFFERENCIA - (Kevin Power, Curator, South American invitational and touring exhibition 2000 –’01)BIG RIVER2 – CCA7, 2002: ‘Spikes and Spears” see website or www.cca7.org/bigriver2

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
VAE 1987 – ‘91
UWI School of Continuing Studies 1987 – 1992
CCA7: 2003 – 2004, One Year Intensive workshop in drawing – over 40 sessions with a small group of students, one of whom compiled her portfolio for admission to the Foundation Course at the Byamshaw School of Art in the UK, and has subsequently graduated from St. Martin’s School of Art (2007) in painting – she now functions as a professional artist in the UK)
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES (UWI): 1997 – 2007; brought on to the programme (by course director, Ken Crichlow) to spearhead and give direction to the drawing curriculum of the BA programme.
Since 2006, I have written a series of 12 articles in the Daily Express Newspaper, covering exhibitions of local artists.
Over twenty years there have been innumerable occasions of lectures to smaller groups of students and the public, scheduled visits to secondary schools, at the National Museum, at local galleries.
2007 I was commissioned to write a text for the National Trust to commemorate a series of drawings by artist Leroy Clarke.

GENERAL BACKGROUND:
Multi tasking, self financing, independent, mentor to several younger artists over a twenty year period; I have worked successfully within the UWI framework part time for nearly twenty years, as the opportunities have allowed.

I saw my role primarily to strengthen the student core practice through the abstraction and process of drawing, building confidence through a critical, sustained discipline, application and practice; a confidence learnt and developed, from which a powerful personal sense of design could be applied to all aspects of the visual creative fields.

I am career artist, painter, but also known as a specialist in the teaching and making of drawings, and have over a twenty year period developed a both academic and intuitive approach to the learning of this process, skill, and language of communication. I have taught architects, designers, painters, town planners, engineers, sculptors, web designers, actors, businessmen and women, children, housewives, taxi drivers, many late bloomers and secondary school students over a twenty year period. I have developed a relaxed but intensive studio workshop approach with high levels of productivity and engagement, as most students have issues of confidence learning these skills of art and design, which is not unlike learning a foreign language, or several new languages of form.

Cock Head

Muzzled



14.2.08

EDWARD BOWEN – FINE ART AND DESIGN

ARTIST CONSULTANT

THE STUDIO ANNEXE

25 SYDENHAM AVENUE

ST. ANN’S

PORT OF SPAIN

868 621 3970

868 735 3750

EMAIL: ezkb@tstt.net.tt

WEBSITE: http://www.bowenartdesign.com

       FINE ART MENTORING PROGRAMME - 2008:

This program has evolved over twenty years of teaching and mentoring local, younger, fine artists and designers. The format places direct emphasis on intended artistic goals, continuous assessment of individual project work and schedules, sustained critical dialogue, and the examination of personal processes and contextual references essential to build portfolio. For each student this process is different, requiring different emphases and concentrations of attention, in areas of skill, drawing, painting, art history, disciplined applications and investigations, as well as establishing access to contemporary information relevant to their desired artistic goals and intentions.

The program is conducted over a period of one year; the student works out of their own studios and in direct collaboration with this established studio space; communication is at regular meetings to assess working processes and results, but also utilizing email as a continuous interface, and the internet as immediate library and multiple research platforms. A heavy emphasis is placed on the gradual improvement of the student’s drawing abilities and the sustained development of this primary area, critical to wider and more ambitious projections.

The program bears continuous emphasis and critical reference to, a broad appreciation of local artists’ practices, careers, methodologies and portfolios, but also with continuous reference to international and global histories of artistic practice. This helps the student to “locate” individual processes and ambitions with more specific intention and resolve.

This program bears no certificate of graduation; the resulting portfolio creates the intended result and platform for further artistic engagement at a more sophisticated level of awareness and practice. This approach has been used successfully by many private students to gain access to art school educational opportunities here and abroad, as well as to significantly improve and develop the contexts of individual studio and career practices. The cost is TT$15,000 per student, not inclusive of materials.

EDWARD BOWEN