Peter Dowker

PETER DOWKER

 

STATEMENT

I love collage……always have. As far back as grade school art classes I always reached for the scissors and glue first, the paint and brushes second. I find the act of combining found images, colors, textures and graphics very seductive. I took painting classes in art school but almost always wound up gluing bits and pieces of ephemera to the surface at different stages during the creation of a painting. My work is rarely intellectual. I prefer the happenstance that results from the intuitive combination of disparate elements. I use vintage and modern imagery, texture and typography combined with paint, pencil and acrylic image transfers to create multilayered, weathered, sometimes nostalgic looking works.

The Base of the “Blue Sums” series are vintage blueprints I acquired in 1976 while cleaning out an architect’s office and pages from an old arithmetic workbook I discovered in a neighbour’s shed in 2008. Rescued bits of our history combined and given a new life.

 

Peter Dowker, May 2010

 

NOT PINK/PAS ROSE

 

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

 

Born July 26^th 1954 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

After graduating with a BFA in painting from Concordia University , Montreal, I opened Peter + Peter Studios in Montreal with my partner , Peter Borowsky supplying special props, models and mechanical effects to the film and TV industries for 30 years until we closed in 2007.

I then moved to the small town of Brome Lake Quebec and renovated an old garage into my home and studio with the goal of getting back to making art on a full time basis. Looking for inspiration, I stumbled upon the mailart network. I quickly became involved in this movement, turning out hundreds of postcard size collages each year. In late 2009, I primed a few panels, got out my paints and my extensive collection of ephemera and started the “Blue Sums” series of mixed media collages.

 

 

EXHIBITIONS

 

A BOOK ABOUT DEATH   The Emily Harvey Foundation, NY, NY   Sept 2009

 

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER – COLLAGE, MONTAGE, ASSEMBLAGE

   Climate Gallery, Long Island City, NY  Feb 2010  

   One of the 10 featured artists chosen by collagist Jonathan  Talbot

 

NEVER THINK SMALL – REDUX

   Climate Gallery, Long Island City, NY  April 2010

 

ART CARREE – MAILART PROJECT AND EXHIBITION

   Ebracher Hot Building, Schweinfurt, Germany  May 2010

 

 

 

PASTE-UP 2010

   The ALL Arts Gallery, Lowell, Mass July 2010

 

L’ESPACE ET LE TEMPS

   Musee des Beaux-Arts de Mont St Hilaire, Salon d’Automne, October 2010

 

FLUXKITS # 9 + # 11, FLUXPRESS

   Fluxus/Artfarm, St. Louis, Mo