Despard Gallery is proud to announce the highly anticipated upcoming solo exhibition With Water Over Time by emerging Tasmanian artist Harrison Bowe.
21 August – 14 September 2024
In his second solo exhibition with Despard Gallery, Bowe expands his creative exploration of the remote Tasmanian wildness, including how physically experiencing the landscape can inform its interpretation through paint. With Water Over Time brings together a new suite of paintings that recall Bowe’s personal expeditions rafting the Gordon and Franklin Rivers, as well as traversing the mountainous areas of Loinnekumme / Arthur Ranges and Tuynti / Frenchmans Cap, south-west Lutruwita / Tasmania.
Built up through layers of enamel, thick oil paint and beeswax, each work responds to the experience of navigating these terrains first-hand, including the contrasting typographies and unpredictable conditions. Carved out with various sized palette knifes, the surface of each painting maps key moments of this journey, becoming a trace of Bowe’s pursuit within the landscape and then creatively in the studio, captured through the physical trace of his hand. Contrasting raw textures against subtle gradients of receding tone, Bowe’s work becomes truly immersive, evoking both the weight of these spaces as well as the ethereal experiences they can elicit. Overall, Bowe’s practice encapsulates the underlying significance of the Tasmanian landscape, affirming its persuasive and emotional influence that is both personal, yet universally shared.
Harrison Bowe is an emerging artist based in nipaluna/Hobart, lutruwita/Tasmania. Bowe graduated from the University of Tasmania, School of Arts and Media in 2020 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. In 2023, Bowe was selected as part of inaugural RISE exhibition at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. He was selected as a finalist in the Henry Jones Art Prize in both 2022, as well as 2021, receiving an honourable mention. Bowe was also selected as a finalist in the prestigious Hadley’s Art Prize for contemporary landscape painting in 2022 and 2024. Bowe has undertaken residencies at the South East Centre for Contemporary Art, Bega, as well as in Queenstown, Tasmania and is currently working out of the Artist Run Initiative, Good Grief Studios.