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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. 

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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

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