Solo Show
SRO Photo Gallery, Texas Tech School of Art
18th Street and Flint Avenue, Lubbock, TX, 10/18-11/13/2004.
Reception: October 18, 6 – 8 pm..
I will be exhibiting 14 pieces from the Anti-Bush Protest and Anti-War Protest series.
Bowman, Penelec & Megahan Galleries, Allegheny College, Meadville, PA. 10/5-10/27/04.
Reception: October 5, 6 – 8 pm.
4 person show w/Sue Buck, David T. Collins, George Roland. 8 pieces from the Iowa series.
A Shenere Velt Gallery, the Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring, 1525 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. 9/13-10/31/04. [1 piece: ‘Orange Jacket and Macy’s’]
Winner Best of Show award.
Texas Photographic Society, Davis Gallery, 837 W. 12th St., Austin, TX. 9/10/2004.
1 piece: ‘Blue Industrial’.
Solo Show
Reed Whipple Cultural Center, 821 Las Vegas Blvd. North, Las Vegas, NV. 6/11-8/15/2004.
Reception: June 11, 6 – 8 pm.
I will be exhibiting 24 pieces in this show.
Pick of the week
MON JULY 18, 2004
“Whether capturing a colorful Pride parade in NYC or sewing together a collage of ominous machinery on a Midwest farm, photographer Susan Bowen’s overlapping, panoramic technique manages to capture a sense of ceaseless motion. While the idea of a portrait series of mid-America landscapes might raise cynical eyebrows, Bowen’s Iowa Meanderings exhibit invites viewers into a stylized world even the local farmhands might fail to recognize.
Since I’ve never been to Iowa, my mental images of serene farmland were quickly shattered by Bowen’s eerily cobbled shots of the state’s heavily industrial underpinnings, and a series of John Deeres straight out of a creepy Tim Burton fantasy world. The candy-slick color scheme is powerfully disarming, and I’m still waiting for the rusted junkyard inhabitants to show up in my nightmares.
Bowen’s style is fast and furious, with chance overlaps playing a large role in the final product. It also presents a very personalized sense of place and perception, as the artist imposes her own unique vision into a pre-existing landscape, transforming clichés into something far more substantial. I’d be anxious to see her panoramic takes on Sin City.”
Kelle Schillaci, Las Vegas City Life
Finalist (1 of 3), Public Art Project, University of Northern Iowa, Dining Hall Panels. Traveled to Iowa to shoot custom imagery for this project (agricultural themes). Proposed 8 dining hall panels, 10’x3′ digital C-prints (framed in custom heavy metal frames). April 2004. Budget: $40,000.
Enclosed is my proposal as a finalist for the Towers Dining Center project. I am presenting eight photographic pieces 3’ x 10’ in size, to be mounted above the indicated dining booths. They will be archivally mounted and framed with a dark bronze-colored heavy metal framing and UV plexiglas. Details on the printing and framing follow.
I made a 4-day trip to Iowa last month to shoot and came back with a lot of material (drove 1,000 miles, shot 37 rolls of film). I was also fortunate that when I was visiting Houston that same month I was able to photograph a livestock show and carnival (as pseudo Iowa State Fair images). Though I would still be interested in attending and photographing the real Iowa State Fair in August, the amount of material I already have makes such a trip not absolutely necessary and ultimately outside the allotted budget.
I have selected eight images and have presented them displayed within elevation drawings of the booth panels. The ones I selected are the more graphic of the choices, which I think will hold up better when viewed from across the big space of the dining hall. I’ve also included a selection of other images, grouped by topic. As you can see, what interested me the most were the various types of grain elevators and equipment used in farming. It was luck that during the time period I was in Iowa, I had a friend there visiting her mother, and she facilitating me visiting some farms in Baxter, a small town near Des Moines.
Three images featured on cover and 2 images in the interior of Issue #4.
Readingground Magazine was a Brooklyn literary magazine.
Runnels Gallery, Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, NM. 3/26-4/6/04. 3rd Place Award, Juried by Carol Squiers, curator at the International Center of Photography, NYC. [1 piece: ‘Water Park and Clouds’]
