Sean McDowell is an emerging German-born artist based in Melbourne (Naarm), Australia. Working primarily in painting, sculpture and exhibition-making, his practice explores disciplines ranging from psychology and neuroscience to biology, microscopy and museology. McDowell also draws on auto-biographical elements and art historical narratives, which are re-considered through the formation of patterns and systems. The act of collecting lies at the heart of Sean’s practice, where he draws on both found and bought materials as the point of departure.
Driven by a deep engagement with materiality and fabrication processes, McDowell’s work re-interprets new, multi-layered pathways between things. Through a series of actions, the subject matter is often re-contextualised as a way of challenging its’ pre-existing framework, while allowing the potential for different interpretations and connections to arise. By shifting the viewers perception and questioning their associations to them, he is interested in the blurring of imagery that occurs between representation and abstraction – observation and the imagination.
In 2020, McDowell completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (First Class Honours) at the Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne under the supervision of Tessa Laird. Selected solo exhibition include Organisms, Five Walls, In the day I dream of faraway places, Kingston Arts Centre, The Staging of Actions Past, St Francis, Selected Works, Rubicon ARI and Cuprum, Cuprum, Kings Artist Run. He has been included in group exhibitions including From Heart & Mind, The Dax Centre, Extended Gestures Extended, Five Walls, and Group Conversations: Australia’s Shame, George Paton Gallery. In 2018, Sean was the recipient of the Perrin Sculpture Foundry Award. He has been shortlisted for prizes such as The 2017 Mary and Lou Senini Student Art Award, McClelland Gallery, the 2018 Footscray Tertiary Art Price and the 2019 Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Fellowship at Margaret Lawrence Gallery.
He was the recipient of a Kingston Arts Grant and a City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grant in 2020 and a City of Yarra Small Projects Grant in 2022. Last year Sean was selected to take part in the CAVES Guest Curator Program, where he presented a curatorial project titled Shifting Forces. He is currently one of seven artists taking part in the 2023 Billilla Studio Residency Program through Bayside City Council. His work is held in public, private and corporate collections throughout Australia, and internationally in USA, Germany and The Netherlands.
Sean would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri and Bunurong peoples of the Kulin nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which he lives and works. He pays his respects to Elders past, present and future. Sovereignty was never ceded.
Image credit: Photo: Mark Ashkanasy. Courtesy Bayside Gallery
Born 1997, Erlangen, Germany
Lives and works in Melbourne (Naarm), Australia
Education
2020 Bachelor of Fine Arts (First Class Honours), Victorian College of the Arts
2018 Bachelor of Fine Arts (Sculpture and Spatial Practice), Victorian College of the Arts
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023 Backdown to Earth, @14 Langridge, Collingwood, VIC
Bruise, Castlemaine Contemporary Art Space (CASPA), Castlemaine, VIC
Sean McDowell: Collectors' Focus Series XII, Lennox St. Gallery (Online Exclusive)
2022 Organisms, Five Walls, Footscray, VIC
2021 In the day I dream of faraway places, Kingston Arts Centre, Moorabbin, VIC
2019 The Staging of Actions Past, St. Francis, Collingwood, VIC
Selected Works, Rubicon ARI, North Melbourne, VIC
Cuprum, Cuprum, Kings Artist-Run, Melbourne, VIC
2018 The Repositioning of Objects that Once Functioned, George Paton Gallery, Parkville, VIC
2017 The Repositioning of an Object that Once Functioned, Seventh Gallery, Fitzroy, VIC
Commissions
2019 First Commissions Project, The University of Melbourne, Southbank, VIC
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 Lifeforms, Lennox St. Gallery, Richmond, Victoria
Refuge, workshop, stage, site: Billilla Artist Studios 2022-23, Bayside Gallery, Brighton, VIC
2022 Shifting Forces, with Julien Comer-Kleine, Gabrielle Skye Nehrybecki and Nina Rose Prendergast, CAVES, Melbourne, VIC
2020 VCA Graduate Exhibition, Victorian College of the Arts, Southbank, VIC
From Heart + Mind, The Dax Centre, Parkville, VIC
2019 Extended Gestures Extended, with Georgie North, Charlie Harding and Ben Pell, Five Walls, Footscray, VIC
2018 VCA Graduate Exhibition, Victorian College of the Arts, Southbank, VIC
2017 Testing Sites- A public art project, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC
Group Conversations; Australia’s Shame, George Paton Gallery, Parkville, VIC
2016 Proud 2016, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Southbank, VIC
Exhibitions Curated
2024 In a State of Limbo, with Georgie North, Tinieka Page and Alice Ramsden, Castlemaine Contemporary Art Space (CASPA), Castlemaine, Victoria
2022 Shifting Forces, with Julien Comer-Kleine, Gabrielle Skye Nehrybecki and Nina Rose Prendergast, CAVES, Melbourne, Victoria
2019 Curator of Box123, The University of Melbourne, Southbank, Victoria
2017 Co-Curator of Proud 2017, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Southbank, Victoria
Grants
2021 City of Yarra Small Projects Grant
2020 Kingston Arts Grant
City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grant
The Myer Foundation National Assistance Program for the Arts Grant
2018 UMSU Arts Grant
Prizes, Awards & Residencies
2023 Billilla Artists Studio Program, Bayside City Council
2019 Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship (Shortlist)
2018 Majilis Travelling Scholarship (Shortlist)
Perrin Sculpture Foundry Award (Recipient)
2017 Mary and Lou Senini Student Art Award (Finalist)
Graeme Hildebrand Art Prize for Young Contemporary Artists (Finalist)
Footscray Tertiary Art Prize (Honourable Mention)
Selected Media / Bibliography
2023 https://www.miragenews.com/2023-billilla-studio-artists-announced-915234/
2022 http://cavesgallery.com/exhibitions/shifting-forces
https://artedit.com.au/ones-to-watch-sean-mcdowell/
2021 https://www.kingstonarts.com.au/VISUAL-ART/Exhibitions/Sean-McDowell
2020 https://www.sane.org/media-centre/media-releases-2020/the-dax-centre-heart-and-mind
https://art2020.finearts-music.unimelb.edu.au/programs/honours/sean-mcdowell
2019 https://www.kingsartistrun.org.au/artists/sean-mcdowell/
https://www.art-thoughts-au.com/search/label/Sean%20Mcdowell
Collections
Work is held in public, private and corporate collections in Australia, USA, Singapore, Germany and The Netherlands
Open Tuesday - Friday 11am - 6pm
Saturday - 11am -5pm
