Andrea Bowers
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Biography
Born 1965 in Wilmington, OH
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CAOver the last 20 years Andrea Bowers has gained an international reputation as an artist and social activist. For Bowers, political engagement and artistic expression are inseparable. Her practice, which includes drawings, videos and installations, addresses a wide range of relevant socio-political issues from women’s and worker’s rights and the arms industry, to immigration politics and the climate crisis. Storytelling is integral to the work, and part of her activism consists of highlighting the narratives of resistance and rebellion.
Bowers has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (2024); Galleria d’Arte Moderna Milano in collaboration with Fondazione Furla, Milan (2022); The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2022); Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2021/2022); Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (2020); Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen (2019/2020); Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2017); Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris (2014); Wiener Secession, Vienna (2007); and The Power Plant, Toronto (2007). Bowers has exhibited internationally in biennials and major institutional group exhibitions, including Kunstmuseum Bonn (2023); Hayward Gallery, London (2023); Kunstmueum Ravensburg (2023); Kuntsmuseum Wolfsburg (2022); Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2022); Berkeley Art Museum (2021); Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2021); Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (2020); Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2018); Documenta 14, Fridericianum, Kassel (2017); Triennale Milano, Milan (2017); Aspen Art Museum (2016); and Albertina, Vienna (2015). Bowers’ work is held in the collections of The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; MoMA, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Museum Of Contemporary Art, Chicago, among others.
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Works
Andrea Bowers
Heartless (Fight for $15 Protest at McDonalds, Dec. 5th, 2015, Los Angeles), 2015Graphite on paperSigned versoPaper dimensions:
38 x 55 cm / 15 x 21.7 inches
Framed dimensions:
44.5 x 63.5 cm | 17.5 x 25 inchesB-ABOWERS-.15-0001Andrea Bowers is a master of compositional surprise. Her figures sometimes defy gravity and are located in unexpected arenas of the picture plane, occupying the margins and other overlooked regions...Andrea Bowers is a master of compositional surprise. Her figures sometimes defy gravity and are located in unexpected arenas of the picture plane, occupying the margins and other overlooked regions of the page, and her works reward close looking with an abundance of detail. Bowers‘ drawing is often praised for its fidelity to her source material or deemed „photorealist,“ and it is indeed a significant aspect of her work to conduct such rigorous primary research and to draw with such precision and assiduousness. She is always attentive to the specificity of the people she represents, who were originally depicted in the historical photographs, news accounts, and films she unearths.
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