Arts and Entertainment

Art professor's work to be displayed in multi-venue Twin Cities exhibition

John Bowman's 1988 painting “Crossings” has been prominently displayed in Northeast Minneapolis' 331 Club since it opened in 2005. Credit: John BowmanAll Rights Reserved.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Professor of Art John Bowman's work will be featured in a multi-venue exhibition as part of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association's Art-a-Whirl, May 19-22. The venues, located across Minneapolis-St. Paul and all owned by Jon Oulman, include the 331 Club, the unofficial music hub of Art-a-Whirl since 2006; the Sheridan Room, 331 Club’s widely-acclaimed new neighbor; Amsterdam Bar and Hall, a fixture of downtown St. Paul’s live music scene; Como Dockside, the lakeside jewel at the iconic Como pavilion; and yet-to-be-announced pop-up galleries.

Perhaps best known in the Twin Cities for his painting “Crossings” (1988) — a moody, much-admired landscape scene prominently displayed at Northeast Minneapolis' 331 Club since it opened in 2005 — the New York-based Bowman has been making lyrical, enigmatic paintings and "erasures" of urban landscapes for more than 40 years. Bowman has had an association with Oulman for nearly as long, and this will mark the first major exhibition of his work in Minneapolis since 2006. The retrospective will be accompanied by a limited-edition booklet, which will include a new interview with Bowman and Oulman, and an essay by Minneapolis artist, writer and cultural commentator Andy Sturdevant, who previously wrote about Bowman's work in his 2013 collection of essays, "Potluck Supper with Meeting to Follow."

Bowman works in a variety of media including painting, drawing and sculpture. He is represented by the Winston Wachter Gallery in New York. Since the 1980s he has exhibited at various venues in New York, including the Holly Solomon Gallery, the Lang O’Hara Gallery, and the Tibor de Nagy Gallery. He has shown internationally and is featured in many private and museum collections. He previously taught at the New York Academy of Art and has lectured widely.

“Crossings,” a painting that has resided in a public space in the Twin Cities for nearly two decades, has developed quite a following, as evidenced by this article, deeming it "the most beloved painting" in the Twin Cities area: http://www.mnartists.org/article/love-where-you-find-it

 

Last Updated May 12, 2016