Andrea Bowers

Artist’s Statement

My work focuses primarily on direct action and nonviolent civil disobedience enacted through the lives of women. I present the stories of activists to express my belief that dissent is essential to maintaining a democratic process, as well as to illustrate the importance of a political strategy that opposes violence and war. My work explores the intersections between art and archival processes, and aesthetics and political protest. Cultural production can be an integral part of political action and can help serve as a voice in counter-hegemonic practices. I investigate the role of art in documentation, in-depth storytelling and the reconsideration of historical recording. Many of my projects contextualize historical events in our contemporary situation and underscore their poignancy on our current state of affairs.

My work primarily focuses on video installation, drawing and bookmaking. However, my practice encompasses a wide variety of other material, interventions and social practice. I begin a project by researching, and then use the collected materials as inspiration in determining how the work will be made. Multiple methods for making reproductions recur in my practice: photocopying, photo-realist drawing, photography. Techniques of copying imagery allow for memorialization and homage. The reference to the photographic source is a constant reminder that the person or event is real, and not a product of the artist’s invention. Craft as women’s tradition is a recurring theme in my work as a reminder that craft has always been an integral component of political action.

Biography

Select Solo Exhibitions

2009
Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris, France
Your Donations Do Our Work: Andrea Bowers and Suzanne Lacy, University of California Riverside Sweeney Art Gallery, Riverside, Calif.

2008
Sanctuary, Van Horn, Düsseldorf, Germany

2007-08
The Weight of Relevance, The Power Plant, Toronto

2007
The Suburban, Oak Park, Ill.
The Weight of Relevance, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects and Wiener Secession, Vienna, Austria

2006
Vows, Halle für Kunst, eV, Lüneburg, Germany
Nothing is Neutral: Andrea Bowers, REDCAT, Los Angeles
Eulogies to One and Another, Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris

2005
Medhi Chouakri, Riverside Wall, Berlin
Culture of Choice, Van Horn, Düsseldorf, Germany

2004
Soft Blockades Part 2, Magazin 4, Voralberger Kunstverein, Bregenz, Austria
Soft Blockades, Mary Goldman Gallery, Los Angeles
Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Training, Sara Meltzer Gallery, New York

2003
Magical Politics, Chouakri Brahms, Berlin

2002
Virtual Arena, Sara Meltzer Gallery, New York (catalog)
From Mouth to Ear, Goldman Tevis, Los Angeles
Box with Dance of Its Own Making, Chouakri Brahms, Berlin

2001
Democracy’s Body – Dance Dance Revolution, Art 32 Basel, Art Statements, Basel, Switzerland

2000
Intimate Strangers, Sara Meltzer Gallery, New York
I Need a Hero, Institute of Visual Arts (INOVA), University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wis.
One and the Same Body, ARCO Project Room, Madrid, Spain

Select Group Exhibitions

2008
Amateurs, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco
California Biennial 2008, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, Calif.
Index: Conceptualism in California from the Permanent Collection, The Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
La Mirada Iracunda / The Furious Gaze, Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Progress, Whitney Museum of Art, New York

2007
The Way That We Rhyme: Women, Art and Politics, Yerba Buena, San Francisco
The California Files: Re-Viewing Side Effects of Cultural Memory, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco
Tanzen Sehen, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Seigen, Germany

2006
Personal Affairs, Morsbroich Museum, Leverkusen, Germany
Human Game, Fondazione Pitti Discovery, Florence, Italy
Anticipation, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago

2005
Monuments for the USA, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (traveling)
Touch of Evil, Gallery Estacion Tijuana, Tijuana, Mexico
Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Training (screening), Kunsthalle Basel, Art/Film, Art/ 36/Basel, Switzerland

2003
Conversations, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

2002
Videodrome II, New Museum, New York
Remix: Contemporary Art and Pop, Tate Liverpool, United Kingdom (catalog)
Retake (catalogue), Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen, Germany

2000
Making Time: Considering Time as a Material in Contemporary Film & Video (catalogue), Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Florida; traveled to UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

Professional Experience

2007-2009
Visiting artist, California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles

2008-2009
Guest professor, Graduate Public Practice, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles
Visiting artist, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles

2001
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Calif.

1995-2006
Professor, Studio Art, University of California, Irvine, Calif.

EDUCATION

M.F.A., 1992
California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, Calif.

B.F.A., 1987
Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio