Deanna Bowen

Deanna Bowen
Born 1969
Oakland, CA
Nationality Canadian
Education Emily Carr University of Art and Design
University of Toronto
Known for Video Art
Installation Art
Conceptual Art
Movement Contemporary Art
Awards William H. Johnson Prize (2014)
Website www.deannabowen.ca

Deanna Bowen (born 1969 in Oakland, CA) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes films, video installations, performances, sculpture and photography. Her work addresses issues of trauma and memory through an investigation of personal and official histories related to American slavery, migration, the Civil Rights Movement and the Ku Klux Klan.[1] Bowen is a dual citizen of the US and Canada. She lives and works in Toronto.

Early Life and Education

Bowen is the descendant of African Americans who migrated north to Canada from Alabama and Kentucky (via Oklahoma and Kansas) in the early twentieth century. In 1909, her great-grandparents helped to found Amber Valley, one of four black immigrant settlements in Alberta.[2] She was raised in Vancouver by her mother and grandparents, where she later completed a Diploma of Fine Art from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 1994. After a move to Toronto, she received her Master in Visual Studies from the University of Toronto in 2008.[3]

Career

Bowen first became known for her single-channel video works exploring issues of family, race, gender and sexuality, including milk-fed (1997), "an astounding balance of conceptual clarity and emotional power,"[4] sadomasochism (1998), and Deutschland (2000). She made her first dual-channel video work, Grist in 2002, followed by two multi-media video installations Gospel (2008) and Shadow on the Prairie (2009),[5] presented together in the exhibition, Stories to pass on..., which toured several museums across Canada between 2009 and 2012.[6]

In 2010, Bowen produced the video, sum of the parts: what can be named, in which she delivers a highly detailed oral history of slavery and migration as experienced by her family.[7] Specially commissioned by Vtape, this video was screened at the Kassel Documentary Film & Video Festival (2011) and Oberhausen Film Festival (2012),[8] and in 2012, curator Srimoyee Mitra selected it for inclusion in Project 35_Vol. 2, an international touring exhibition produced by Independent Curators International.[9]

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Images Festival of Independent Film, Video & New Media in 2012, Bowen produced The Paul Good Papers, an interdisciplinary installation/performance work co-commissioned by Images and Gallery 44. The Paul Good Papers was installed at Gallery 44 and featured video, archival materials, performance, performance documentation, as well as audio/sound sculpture.[10] From April 5 to April 21, 2012, Bowen and actor Russell Bennett staged daily performances based on an audio-recorded interview between U.S. journalist Paul Good and Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard Robert Shelton. The exhibition also included the premiere presentation of a 24-minute looping video projection focused on Good's recording of the 1964 campaign to integrate high schools in Notasulga, Alabama.[11]

Addressing many of the recurring themes in her autobiographical, process-driven practice, Bowen's expansive solo exhibition, Invisible Empires, was exhibited at The Art Gallery of York University in 2013. Featuring Ku Klux Klan archival material including photographs and documents, as well as replicas of Klan banners and robes, the exhibition received a fair amount of media attention as many considered the work to be controversial,[12] although Bowen was clear on the goals of the work:

“ Most people build on this idea of Canada being a haven for blacks—the whole Underground Railroad and all of that history, which is real, but there are also these other histories about black treatment in Canada that don’t get brought forward.[13] ”

In 2015, she extended her exploration of these issues to a U.S. context, investigating the Klan's history in Pennsylvania in work on display in the exhibition Traces in the Dark at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia.[14]

Throughout her career, Bowen has given guest lectures and presented artist talks internationally. In August 2015, she was a featured artist representing Canada at the Creative Time Summit at the 56th Venice Biennale - All The World’s Futures, curated by Okwui Enwezor.[15] Bowen has also worked for a number of arts organizations in Toronto, including Liaison of Independent Filmmakers Of Toronto, InterAccess, Images Festival and A Space Gallery. She taught studio, video art and expanded documentary production in the Department of Arts, Culture & Media at the University of Toronto Scarborough from 2007 to 2014.

Exhibitions

Bowen first exhibited her work in the 1990s; early group exhibitions include shows at A Space Gallery in Toronto in 1997, and at Forest City Gallery in London, Ontario in 1999. Her first solo exhibition, Home, was held in 1994 at Pitt Gallery in Vancouver, BC.[16] Her work has also been included in group exhibitions at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC (2011), the Canadian Museum of Civilization at Pier 21 in Halifax, NS (2013), the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, ON (2014) and the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA (2015).

Major solo exhibitions include The Paul Good Papers, a 2012 solo exhibition/residency at Gallery 44 in Toronto, Ontario, in partnership with the Images Festival, and Invisible Empires at the Art Gallery of York University in 2013, while her films have screened at Kassel Documentary Film & Video Festival (2011) and Oberhausen Film Festival (2012).[17]

Recognition

Bowen has received numerous grants and awards over the course of her career, most notably from the B.C. Cultural Services, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Telefilm, and Canada Council. She is a 2016 Guggeheim Fellow and was the recipient of the 2014 William H. Johnson Prize, an annual award for early career African American artists.[18] She was also awarded project sponsorship from Partners in Art for her 2013 solo exhibition, Invisible Empires at the Art Gallery of York University.[19]

Collections

References

  1. ↑ Westra, Monique, "The Gospel Truth: Deanna Bowen Digs deep into Family History in Stories to pass on...". Galleries West Magazine Online, Vol. 11, No. 1, Spring 2012, pp. 37-39.
  2. ↑ Westra, Monique, "Deanna Bowen, Stories to Pass On". Esplanade Gallery, Medicine Hat, February 25-April 15, 2012.
  3. ↑ University of Toronto Art Centre, "Graduating Exhibition of Deanna Bowen, Erika De Freitas and Dara Gellman". April 1–12, 2008.
  4. ↑ Pirrie-Adams, Kathleen, "Nailing Jell-O to a Wall." Xtra, September 25, 1997.
  5. ↑ Goddard, Peter, "Video artist shows an alternate history of Canada". The Toronto Star, March 26, 2009.
  6. ↑ Carr-Harris, Ian, and Deanna Bowen "Stories to pass on... Exhibition Catalogue". Thames Art Gallery, Esplanade Art Gallery, Moosejaw Museum and Art Gallery, The Reach Gallery Museum Abbottsford, The Kenderdine Art Gallery, 2009
  7. ↑ Brophy, Sarah and Janice Hladki eds, Embodied Politics in Visual Autobiography (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014), 256.
  8. ↑ Vtape, "Vtape presents Quantum Coherence at International Short Film Festival Oberhausen 2012", April 28, 2012.
  9. ↑ Independent Curators International, PROJECT 35 VOLUME 2, 2012-2016.
  10. ↑ Vaughan, R.M., "The Paul Good Papers: The past speaks; we still shudder." The Globe and Mail. April 21, 2012
  11. ↑ Schecter, Fran, "Racism's traces: Deanna Bowen goes back in time." NOW Magazine. April 12, 2012
  12. ↑ Matt Galloway, "Deanna Bowen - Invisible Empires at AGYU," CBC Metro Morning. CBC Broadcasting, January 16, 2013.
  13. ↑ Melissa Sundardas, "Ku Klux Klan banners hang at York University," Maclean's.ca On Campus, Maclean's Magazine. January 25, 2013
  14. ↑ Art Daily, "Traces in the Dark: Deanna Bowen, Harold Mendez, and Gregory Sholette exhibit in Philadelphia." artdaily.org February 9, 2015.
  15. ↑ Creative Time, "Creative Time Summit: 2015 Participants". August 11–13, 2015.
  16. ↑ UNIT/PITT Projects (formerly the Helen Pitt Gallery), "Deanna Bowen: Home," Marc 31-April 23, 1994.
  17. ↑ Vtape, "Vtape presents Quantum Coherence at International Short Film Festival Oberhausen 2012", April 28, 2012.
  18. ↑ The William H. Johnson Foundation for the Arts, 2014 William H. Johnson Prize Winner.
  19. ↑ Partners in Art, Deanna Bowen: Invisible Empires.

External links

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