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Prizes and exhibitions
2018
Salon Comparaisons, Grand Palais, Paris (and in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015).
Painting prize Madeleine Couderc.
L'Abstrait Réel, La Salle Royale de l'Eglise de la Madeleine, Paris.
Henry Miller Fine Art, London (and in 2017).
2017
Abstract Nature of Realism, La Salle Royale de l'Eglise de la Madeleine, Paris.
Société des Artistes Français, Grand Palais, Paris.
2016
Boïcos Fine Arts, Paxos, Greece (and in 2015).
2014
Cercle Municipal des Gobelins et des Beaux-Arts (guest of honour), Mairie du 13ème, Paris.
2013
personal exhibition, American School of Paris.
2012
personal exhibition, Fondation Taylor, Paris.
2011
personal exhibition, Galerie Beckel-Odille-Boïcos, Paris (and in 1999 et 2006) .
Galería Ámbit, Barcelona.
2010
Painting prize Monique Corpet, Fondation Taylor, Paris.
personal exhibition, Galerie Suzanne Belaieff, Monaco.
personal exhibition, Galerie Anna-Tschopp, Marseille.
2009
Galerie Beckel-Odille-Boïcos, Paris (and in 1997, 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2008).
2008
Selection in Salon d'Automne, Compiègne.
Galerie Raison d'Art, Lille.
2007
Salon d'Automne, Pont-l'Evêque et Beaumont-en-Auge.
2006
personal exhibition, Galerie Catherine et André Hug, Paris (and in 2005).
2005
personal exhibition, Galerie Eric Monbel, Paris.
2004
personal exhibitione, Rona Gallery, London.
Galerie Artemisia, Paris.
2003
personal exhibition, Galerie Artemisia, Paris.
D.F.N. Gallery, New-York (and in 1998, 1999 and 2001).
Redwing Fine Art Gallery, Yarmouth, MA (and in 2002).
2002
Salon d'Estampes, Paris.
personal exhibition, D.F.N. Gallery, New-York (and in 2000).
personal exhibition, Rivier College Art Gallery, Nashua, New Hampshire.
Ronald Bowen
Originally from the US, Ronald Bowen was born in 1944 and grew up in Lake Placid (Florida). He first studied art in Florida before completing his courses in Florence, Italy.
This first experience in Europe was key for the artist who, since 1970, lives in France. His Parisian studio is located on the 6th floor of the Cité Montmartre aux Artistes, an impressive complex of artists studios built in the 1920’s.
Even though his art arises from the photo-realist movement of the 1960’s, launched by the American painters Richard Estes and Ralph Goings, Ronald Bowen does not claim to belong to any art movement.
Characteristic of 17th century Dutch mannerism, we can feel in Ronald Bowen’s work a particular sense of observation and detail. Contemporary subject matter associated with classic technique allows the painter to transfigure subjects borrowed from our daily lives with a great mastery.
As precise as spare, his work reaches a maximum of pictural density thanks to color, which he applies with a lot of technique, in successive layers. It is in museums and books that he learnt how to manage colors in such a manner, as well as in Florence where he studied the art of the Italian Renaissance. There, the artist understood his aim was to apply their way of painting to his daily life and personal images.
Another major influence in Ronald Bowen’s art is music. From the outset, the painter attempts to bind colors with musical scales: « I have this obsession to make colors sing, like beautiful music for the eyes ».
Light, reflections, shadows, textures, nothing is left to chance, infusing each work with a particular poetic dimension. With a wise use of harmony between forms and contrast, the artist rewrites the world we live in, providing beauty and mystery to ordinary objects.
While Ronald Bowen briefly experimented with abstraction in the early 70’s, we can notice in his work that the abstract infuses the real, leaving room for imagination. With unpredictable cropping, a texture vibrating under the light or even an asserted geometry, the artist lets the spectator imagine his own story around a swimming pool exit, a bathroom corner or a market tent.
« What differentiates him from artists such as Richard Estes and Ralph Goings is the contemplative part and feeling of unreality that emerge from his compositions, where one quick look could retain only abstraction. »
Lydia Harambourg dans La Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot, 18 Avril 2003, N°15.