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, East Anglia Art Fund, Printmakers Council and Norfolk Contemporary Arts Society.
Selected Exhibitions
2026 In Proximity, Norwich Castle Museum & Gallery Open
2025 Bloc Projects (two-person with Desmond Brett), Sheffield
Flat Volume, (group) A.P.T. Gallery, London
Summer Contemporary, Snape Maltings, Suffolk
Printmakers Council at 60, Oxo Tower Wharf, London
Summer Exhibition, Mandell’s Gallery, Norwich
2024 Pile Up, Crypt Gallery, Norwich
6th International Printmaking Bienniale, Čačak, Serbia
Hospital Rooms Digital Art School, Hauser & Wirth, London
Thinking Through Drawing, Cromer Artspace, Norfolk
Mandell's Summer Show, Mandell's Gallery, Norwich
Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield
2023 Colour, Cromer Artspace
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, Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery
The Waiting Place, The Art Station, Suffolk
Territory, (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, (touring) Lust and the Apple, Edinburgh (May), CLB Berlin (April)
2018 Ecstasy in Norwich, LOWER.GREEN, Norwich
State of Print, (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, 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
Commissions, Installations, Performance and Public Works
2024 Gravity, multi-panel mural for Willow Therapy Unit, Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust
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.
Work in Collections
British Council
Egyptian Ministry of Culture
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust
Paintings in Hospitals
Penang State Art Gallery
Printmakers Council Archive
UCLH Arts
Talks/Lectures
2026 Lother Götz, Colour - Space - Light - Spirit, in Conversation with Carl Rowe
2024 Richard Calvocoressi in Conversation with Carl Rowe. Talking about Friends and Relations, Gagosian 2022. Norfolk
Contemporary Art Society, Norwich 16.10.24
2024 Mali Morris in Conversation with Carl Rowe. Norfolk Contemporary Art Society, Norwich 20.05.24
2023 Hazel Soper and Maddie Exton, Chair of Outpost in Conversation with Carl Rowe. Norfolk Contemporary Art Society,
Norwich 16.05.23
2019 Paolozzi the Printmaker: Gather Edit Republish. Talking about Eduardo Paolozzi’s screenprints. East Gallery, Norwich
University of the Arts, 29.11.19
2018 Printmaking Unleashed: The Contemporary Spirit of Rembrandt. Norwich Castle and Museum, 21.11.18
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
2025 Longworth-West., et al, Flat Volume, A.P.T. Gallery, London (2025)
ISBN 978-1-7397317-5-5
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