Kathryn Cowen, Painting Now 2023, Michael Reid Gallery, Sydney
Painting Now 2023
Sally Bourke, Kathryn Cowen, Annalisa Ferraris, Megan Hales, Thomas Kuss and Eduardo Wolfe-Alegria
Michael Reid Gallery, Sydney
109 Shepherd Street
Chippendale NSW 2008 Australia
Open Mon to Fri 11am–5pm
Saturday 11am–3pm
6—28 Oct 2023
www.michaelreid.com/paintingnow
info@michaelreid.com.au
+61 2 8353 3500
Painting Now spotlights six painters leading the charge in reshaping and redefining art’s most storied medium, breaking it open to bold new possibilities in pursuit of visually arresting, technically dazzling, conceptually driven practice.
In identifying these artists and bringing them together in a vibrantly curated show, Michael Reid Galleries seeks to amplify the most innovative voices in the contemporary painting field, giving collectors the opportunity to discover and acquire their work at its pivotal point of entry to the upper reaches of collectibility and demand.
Spanning a diverse array of painterly approaches, modes of expression and areas of critical inquiry, Painting Now finds six established practitioners at a moment of creative breakthrough. Operating at the cutting edge of their medium, these artists bring technical mastery, formal innovation and a zest for pushing the boundaries of what painting can be.
For more information, please contact dean@michaelreid.com.au
Painting Now 2023, Michael Reid Gallery, Sydney
“Kathryn Cowen’s paintings entice the viewer into the liminal spaces of thresholds - hyper-lit scenes offering pathways into psychological landscapes of interconnectivity, where time is disrupted by fragments of memory, flashes of unseen forces captured in alterations of colour and light – scenes of intra-action, where membranes are fluid and shifting like moments in a half remembered dream.” Gareth Jenkins, 2023
Kathryn Cowen is a Sydney based multidisciplinary artist working across the fields of painting, sculpture and installation. She draws on science fiction tropes to create speculative fictions in order to re-present visions of reality.
Cowen has exhibited regularly in solo and group exhibitions across a variety of commercial, artist run and institutional galleries since graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) from the National Art School in 2007. She was a recent finalist in the 2022 North Sydney Art Prize and her most recent solo exhibition, #otherworlds2, was held at AIRspace Projects, Marrickville in 2021. Cowen has been selected as a finalist in numerous art prizes including the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award (2021, 2019, 2015), the Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award (2019), the Green Way Art Prize (2021), Calleen Art Prize (2018), Waverley Art Prize (2015), Little Things Art Prize (2021, 2020) and the Portia Geach Memorial Award (2006). Cowen recently participated in a collaborative residency with Dr Gareth Jenkins at Kandos, NSW in preparation for Cementa24. She has also participated in the Cloudbough Art Residency (2021), the Gunyah Artist-in-Residence Program (2020) and the NAS Artist-in-Residence Program, Hill End (2015). Her work is held in collections throughout Australia, the Netherlands and the USA.