Michael Bowman
Born in St. James, Manitoba, Michael John Bowman earned his Diploma of Visual Arts from MacEwan University (1991) before completing his BFA with Distinction at the University of Alberta (1995). He worked as a printmaking assistant at the University of Alberta for visiting professor at Ryoji Ikeda (1994), and as a printmaking instructor for the Society of Northern Alberta Print Artists (1997).
Bowman draws his inspiration from a range of sources, from encountering ruins buried in the sands of Morocco to the role of myth in social and individual identity. “It seems that in contemporary society, the study of mythology concerns itself with the basic assumptions that define a person, a family, or a culture, with the informing reality that resides at the centre of being,” writes Bowman. “My work deals with re-establishing that aspect of myth that is missing from my own identity. I develop imagery that that suggests landscapes, locations, and surfaces that have a sacred mythological significance… [alluding] to the sacred by drawing upon the locations and events from my ancestors.”
Bowman has participated in several exhibitions, including at Edmonton’s annual festival The Works: A Visual Arts Celebration, International Mini-Prints at O-Gallery in Tokyo, and Neo-Teric at the Beaver House Gallery in Edmonton. Several collections hold his work, including those of SNAP, Syncrude Canada, and the Akiruno City Print Collection in Japan.
A member at large for SNAP (1994) and later its president (1995 – 1997), Bowman was also a coordinator for the International Printmaking Cooperative Symposium in Edmonton (1997). His commendations include a Senior Printmaking Award from the KPMG Senior Print Exhibition; he was the Itsukaichi Artist in Residence for printmaking at Akiruno in Tokyo (November 1995 – February 1996).
Bowman lives in Edmonton.
Bowman draws his inspiration from a range of sources, from encountering ruins buried in the sands of Morocco to the role of myth in social and individual identity. “It seems that in contemporary society, the study of mythology concerns itself with the basic assumptions that define a person, a family, or a culture, with the informing reality that resides at the centre of being,” writes Bowman. “My work deals with re-establishing that aspect of myth that is missing from my own identity. I develop imagery that that suggests landscapes, locations, and surfaces that have a sacred mythological significance… [alluding] to the sacred by drawing upon the locations and events from my ancestors.”
Bowman has participated in several exhibitions, including at Edmonton’s annual festival The Works: A Visual Arts Celebration, International Mini-Prints at O-Gallery in Tokyo, and Neo-Teric at the Beaver House Gallery in Edmonton. Several collections hold his work, including those of SNAP, Syncrude Canada, and the Akiruno City Print Collection in Japan.
A member at large for SNAP (1994) and later its president (1995 – 1997), Bowman was also a coordinator for the International Printmaking Cooperative Symposium in Edmonton (1997). His commendations include a Senior Printmaking Award from the KPMG Senior Print Exhibition; he was the Itsukaichi Artist in Residence for printmaking at Akiruno in Tokyo (November 1995 – February 1996).
Bowman lives in Edmonton.