Statement
Carl Rowe makes paintings, prints, drawings, and objects. His approach to making art sways between concept and not knowing. The subjects that he questions through his creative process are diverse and include pollen, eels, scaffolds, calibrations, logos, traps, donuts, and domestic objects. Real space coexists with imaginary space in an implausible graphic paradigm. Physical things are incorporated into paintings and painted surfaces evolve into concrete objects. Colour is notable, in some works naturalistic and low key, but in others it is ramped-up to a feverish vibrancy. All of this appears within seemingly non-sensical and vexing unions. There is a strong sense of duality and unseen forces at play. Some works have no discernible subject matter, others are like signs or cyphers or warnings.
Biography
Carl Rowe is an artist living and working in the East of England. His visual practice is based at OUTPOST studios in Norwich, and he works part-time as Senior Research Fellow at Norwich University of the Arts. Rowe has engaged with creative and academic projects widely in the UK and in Germany, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Canada, US, Estonia, Japan, Malaysia, and Egypt. In addition to studio production, he works on public art initiatives including billboards, print portfolios and commissions. In 2018 he was invited by the charity Hospital Rooms to make work for Woodlands Mental Health Unit at Ipswich Hospital and again in 2019 for Northside House Forensic Mental Health Unit. Recent creative workshops have been devised for Hospital Rooms, HMP Norwich, Clear Channel, Norfolk and Suffolk Secure & Forensic Services and The Restoration Trust. Rowe is a member of OUTPOST gallery and studios, East Anglia Art Fund, and the Printmakers Council, and a trustee of Norfolk Contemporary Arts Society.
Selected Exhibitions
2023 Holding Space, Hospital Rooms, Hauser & Wirth, London
The Assembly House Summer Open, Norwich
2022 studioUS, an Original Projects exhibition at PRIMEYARC, Great Yarmouth
Winter Exhibition, Mandell's Gallery, Norwich
2021 Not Quite Aligned, (solo) Mandell's Gallery, Norwich
Northside House / Hospital Rooms, (group) EastGalleryNUA, including: Dexter Dalwood, Naomi Harwin,
Jade Montserrat, Cara Nahaul, Richard Wentworth
Somewhere Unexpected: Norwich Castle Open, (group) Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery
The Waiting Place, (group) The Art Station, Suffolk
Territory, (group touring) The Wright Gallery, Texas A & M University
2020 Colour, Printmakers Council online exhibition in conjunction with Royal Overseas League, London
Unrealised, May 2020, Group exhibition in virtual gallery PSX including: Fay Nicolson, Marcia Farquhar, Henry
Jackson Newcomb, Klanghaus, Sarah Cameron, Krzysztof Fijalkowski and others. Curated by Carl Rowe.
Essentials, April 2020, Group exhibition in virtual gallery PSX including: Richard Sawdon Smith, Martin Firrell,
Cécile Pitois, Sarah Horton, Olivia Bax, Marcus Cope and others. Curated by Carl Rowe
2019 Hospital Rooms, Waterfront Gallery, Ipswich
(with Tal Rosner, Nancy Milner, Rebecca Byrne, Nick Knight and Tim A Shaw)
Territory, (group touring) Lust and the Apple, Edinburgh (May), CLB Berlin (April)
2018 Ecstasy in Norwich, LOWER.GREEN, Norwich
State of Print, (group touring) - Norwich, Preston, DCA Dundee, Limerick
WAC 18, Wells Art Contemporary, Bishop's Palace, Wells Somerset
Cracking, Biblioteca Central, Santander, Spain
9th International Printmaking Biennial, Dourou, Portugal
2017 OUTPOST members' show, selected by Andy Holden
We Came Here to Conquer, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery
BALLOT (touring), CIT Crawford College of Art & Design (June 2017), Contemporary Art Museum Naples (September 2017) Nunnsyard Gallery Norwich (October), Belltable Arts Centre Limerick (June 2018)
Palacio de Exposiciones de Santander Spain (September 2019)
Rudi Dutschke, (group) Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge
3rd Global Print 2017, Douro, Portugal
Lasting Impressions: Selected Work from the Printmakers Council Archive, Scarborough Art Gallery
2016 Constellation, group show at Undercroft Norwich. In collaboration with Piet Zwart Institute, Netherlands
We Came Here to Conquer II, Norwich
2015 East/West, Print portfolio (devised and published by Carl Rowe), China Academy of Arts
Art Hub Print Open, Deptford, London
Okanagan Print Triennial, British Columbia, Canada
2014 SAVORR XII, Norwich
We Came Here to Conquer, Norwich Arts Centre (group print show)
Jackpot, Billboard Hoarding, Nuffield Hospital Cambridge (commissioned)
Barbecue (in association with LiveBox Gallery), film-screening event at Hyde Park Art Centre, Chicago, US
2013 A Banquet for Ultra Bankruptcy, Art Laboratory Berlin
2012 Neo:Print Prize, Bolton
Print Odyssey, Stew Gallery, Norwich
2011 3rd Sheffield International Artist’s Book Prize, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield
For Love not Money, 15th Tallinn Print Triennial, Estonia
KIWA (Kyoto International Woodcut Association), Kyoto, Japan
2010 Global Studio, The Bluecoat, Liverpool
Penang 2nd International Print, Malaysia
We Are What We Do, NUCA Fine Art staff show at Stew gallery, Norwich
Commissions, Installations, Performance and Public Works
2021 BE, Hospital Rooms commission for Northside House, Forensic mental health unit, Norwich.
https://hospital-rooms.com/northside-house
2018 Have Strength Find Peace, Hospital Rooms commission for Woodlands mental health unit
at Ipswich Hospital, https://hospital-rooms.com
2014 Jackpot, editioned print for Nuffield Hospital Cambridge (commissioned)
in connection with billboard public art project.
Published Work
2017 BALLOT, portfolio of prints made in collaboration between Norwich
University of the Arts, CIT Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork Printmakers, Limerick School of Art & Design. Published and exhibited at FIRSTEDITION print symposium presented by Cork Printmakers.
2015 EAST/WEST, portfolio of prints by staff and students from Norwich University of the Arts, Published and exhibited at IMPACT 9 Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking Conference, China Academy of Arts.
2013 12, portfolio of prints by staff and students from Norwich University of the Arts, Published at IMPACT 8: Borders and Crossings: The Artist as Explorer International Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking Conference 2013
Reviews and Catalogues
2021 Geitner, A., Distant Signals, Catalogue essay for Not Quite Aligned showing at Mandell's Gallery, Norwich
Northside House: A Hospital Rooms Project, Eustance, P and Steer, T., Hospital Rooms, London (2021)
ISBN 978-1-80068-289-4
2018 Hospital Rooms: Woodlands, White, N., Hospital Rooms, London (2018)
2015 Low, J. Material Consciousness, Vernon Public Art Gallery, British Columbia, (2015)
ISBN 978-1-927407-16-5
2011 Kaljula, L., For Love Not Money p353 ISBN 978-9949-21-547-8, Tallinn, 2011
2010 Rahman, A M., Pipe 10 p76 ISBN 978-983-42376-4-6, Malaysia, (2010)
Griffin, J,. Global Studio http://www.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/626390