My work is generated from things around me that fit a certain feeling. At times I go looking and find them in places, or in objects and people. Other times I find them in a less active fashion, in sounds or perhaps in dreams or blends of colours.
A good deal of my artwork is painting and drawing, but at times I also produce sculptural pieces that include objects I collect on walks. Recently I have returned to producing audio, which I play in the studio whilst working.
I find making artwork irresistible and enjoy the actual cognition of looking, listening and producing the work. Art is a rich tool, a mechanism that I can use to explore and respond to this curious and strange world where things appear both solidly real and also evasive and elusive.
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Curriculum vitae’
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Born in Hampshire, England, Colin arrived in Australia in 1971 and found work making chandeliers and later delivering rental televisions. Studying for matriculation over two years at night school he enrolled in art college at the Preston Institute of Technology in 1975. A number of leading artists taught at PIT and Colin had the opportunity to work in audio with David Tolley, conceptualism with Dom De Clario, with the hard edge painting of Dale Hickey and the large, expressionistic work of Peter Booth, all of whom have subtley influenced his own art. Majoring in Sound and Painting Colin left to drive taxis and to teach Art. Failing to heed the advice of a gallery director who told him to consider concentrating on one genre and sticking to it Colin continues to produce figurative paintings and drawings; large, ambient, colourwork and the occasional sculpture, installation and audio work.
1953 Born in Hampshire, England
1971 Arrive in Australia
1977 Graduated from art college, Preston Institute of Technology
1980 Melbourne Teachers College, B.Ed Art
1982 Formed Mallee League of Desert Walkers.
1991 Time & Motion, drawings from the Big Desert. Mildura Art Gallery and Chaffey Theatre.
1996 Greenhill Galleries, Adelaide.
1997 Gallery 445, Northcote, Melbourne.
1998 Palimpsest exhibition. Mildura Art Gallery
1998 This Curious World. Mildura Art Gallery
1999 Palimpsest exhibition. Mildura Art Gallery
1999 Art Masters exhibition. Mildura Art Gallery
2000 Palimpsest exhibition. Mildura Art Gallery
2000 Works On Paper. Swan Hill Art Gallery
2002 Palimpsest exhibition. Mildura Art Gallery
2006 Commenced “Colin Rowe Fine Art” virtual gallery spac
2009 Alexandra Art Coop.
2013 Art and Science Show, St Vincent’s Hospital Gallery
2013 The Rick Amor Drawing Prize. Ballarat Art Gallery.
2013 Rob McNamara Exhibition, Collingwood.
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