CHRIS COWAN
Chris Cowan is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in the Ottawa Valley, in Ontario Canada.
Chris’ art practice is untethered and dynamic, drawing from a obsessive fascination with the history of human visual art making, filtered through an institutionalized conceptual fine arts education, and rooted in a sincere and joyful love of tactile, textured, colourful, sparkly, shinny things.
Chris works in a wide variety of media, including, but not limited to: oil, acrylic, gouache and watercolour paints, latex house paint, pencil, markers, pen and ink, punch needle embroidery, photography, video, sound, lithography, intaglio, woodcut and book binding.
At this moment in time, she is contemplating what it means for us human visual artists that the robots are doing what we spend a lifetime learning how to do in literally 5 seconds, and often with better results. AI art generating algorithms are either the most mind-boggling and useful tool an artist has ever has access to, or our full-on replacements. Probably both.
Previous trains of thought that have dominated Chris’ subject matter include keywords such as: word mythology, sadomasochism, displacement, home, cultural otherness, kinbaku, feminism, the sacred and the profane, dreams, somnambulism, comic art, and oil paintings as illustration of dominant cultural narratives in a pre-photographic society.
Chris earned her her Masters of Fine Arts in Oil Painting at the Kyoto City University of Arts in Kyoto, Japan, and her Bachelors of Fine Art in Interdisciplinary Arts at NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She also holds diplomas of Japanese language and Canadian Immigration Law.
She lives with her husband, son, a very old miniature dachshund with a heart murmer, a billion house plants, and a yard full of chipmunks and salamanders in Deep River, Ontario.
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Art - Oil Painting
Kyoto City University of Arts
Kyoto, Japan - 2012
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies
NSCAD University
Halifax, Canada - 2005
Research Residency
Kwame Nkrumah University College of Art
Kumasi, Ghana - 2004
GRANTS AND AWARDS
The Monbukagakusho Scholarship, 2008-2012
Ontario Council for the Arts Production Grant, 2008
The Mackenzie Fund Scholarship for Visual Arts, 2002
The Marguerite and Leroy Zwicker Fellowship for Visual Arts, 2002
The Effie May Ross Memorial Scholarship for Visual Arts, 2002
The William H. Williams Scholarship for Visual Arts, 2000
The Patrick West Art Scholarship for Visual Arts, 2000
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Invocations, Kyoto City University of Art, Kyoto, Japan, 2012
安定≥安らき, Kyoto City University of Art, Kyoto, Japan, 2010
Phantasmagoria, Gallery Lambton, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, 2008
Little Girls Love Animals, Collaborative project with Jenna Ross,
Venus Envy, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 2007
Cityscapes, Black Water, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, 2007
Heart Break Café, The Moon Bean, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2006
Recent Works, Alternative Grounds, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2006
Bedroom, The Khyber Centre for the Arts, Halifax, NS, Canada, 2004
Hiroshima, The Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS, Canada, 2004
We Are Lost, Collaborative project with Jen Marchand, The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, 2004
I Need, The Khyber Centre for the Arts, Halifax, NS, Canada, 2003
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Art 2023, Deep River Public Library, Deep River, ON, CAN, 2023
ROE 2.0 - It Ain’t Over Yet!, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, USA, 2023
DRLAC Art 2022, Deep River Public Library, Deep River, ON, CAN, 2022
Celebrated Locals, Press Vinyl Cafe, Toronto, ON, Canada, 2019
Mistletoe Magic, John B. Aird Gallery, Toronto, ON, Canada, 2018
Foreign Arts, The Kyoto Arts Center, Kyoto, Japan, 2011
Locaten, The Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan, 2011
Sesakuten, The Kyoto City Municipal Museum, Kyoto, Japan, 2011
Foreign Arts, The Kyoto Arts Center, Kyoto, Japan, 2010
Locaten, The Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan, 2010
Frescoten, The Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan, 2010
Locaten, The Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan, 2009
Onon, The Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan, 2009
Sesakuten, The Kyoto City Municipal Museum, Kyoto, Japan, 2009
Foreign Arts, The Kyoto Arts Center, Kyoto, Japan, 2008
Locaten, The Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan, 2008
Canatara Creations, Energy Exchange, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, 2007
Native Plants Garden, Energy Exchange, Sarnia, ON, Canada, 2007
Art Walk, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, 2007
Ero-tica, Andrómeda Gallery, San Jose, Costa Rica, 2007
Pride Show, The Khyber Centre for the Arts, Halifax, NS, CAN, 2004
Disapation, video screening at The New Media Show and Tell,
The Khyber Centre for the Art, Halifax, NS, CAN, 2004
Disapation video screening at The Bella Muse, Halifax, NS, CAN, 2004
Foreign Arts, The Kyoto Arts Center, Kyoto, Japan, 2002
NSCAD Printmaking Show, The Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS, CAN, 2002
Arts Initiative, The Y Arts Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada, 2002
Basic Sound Propaganda Machine, sound work played on CKDU 97.5, Halifax, NS, CAN, 2001
Introductions, The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, NS, CAN, 2001
Vigor and Vim, The Praxis Gallery, Toronto, ON, CAN, 2000