Sean McDowell

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 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

CV

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 (Upcoming) Bruise, Castlemaine Contemporary Art Space (CASPA)

          (Upcoming) Sean McDowell: Collectors' Focus Series XII, Lennox St. Gallery (Online Exclusive)

2022 Organisms, Five Walls

2021  In the day I dream of faraway places, Kingston Arts Centre

2019 The Staging of Actions Past,  St. Francis

         Selected Works, Rubicon ARI

         Cuprum, Cuprum, Kings Artist-Run

2018 The Repositioning of Objects that Once Functioned, George Paton Gallery

2017 The Repositioning of an Object that Once Functioned, Seventh Gallery

Commissions

2019  First Commissions Project, The University of Melbourne

Selected Group Exhibitions

2022   Shifting Forces, with Julien Comer-Kleine, Gabrielle Skye Nehrybecki and Nina Rose Prendergast, C A V E S

2020  VCA Graduate Exhibition, Victorian College of the Arts

            From Heart + Mind, The Dax Centre

2019 Extended Gestures Extended, with Georgie North, Charlie Harding and Ben Pell, Five Walls

2018 VCA Graduate Exhibition, Victorian College of the Arts

2017  Testing Sites- A public art project, The University of Melbourne

        Group Conversations; Australia’s Shame, George Paton Gallery

2016 Proud 2016, Margaret Lawrence Gallery

Exhibitions Curated

2022 Shifting Forces, with Julien Comer-Kleine, Gabrielle Skye Nehrybecki and Nina Rose Prendergast, C A V E S

2019 Curator of Box123, The University of Melbourne

2017 Co-Curator of Proud 2017, Margaret Lawrence Gallery

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://static1.squarespace.com/static/59e80ae06957dab9d5e3f599/t/6253a11296585b7233d94412/1649647890634/HLyon_Shifting+Forces_Exhibition+Text.pdf

           https://artedit.com.au/ones-to-watch-sean-mcdowell/

2021  https://www.kingstonarts.com.au/VISUAL-ART/Exhibitions/Sean-McDowell

         https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59e80ae06957dab9d5e3f599/t/60e6f263dd9b6413cdd6a684/1625748070772/Tonight%2CIdreamofair.pdf

2020 https://www.sane.org/media-centre/media-releases-2020/the-dax-centre-heart-and-mind

         https://umsu.unimelb.edu.au/news/article/7797/2020-08-26-secret-spaces-a-review-of-from-heart-mind-at-the-dax-centre/

           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 throughout Australia, Germany and The Netherlands

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Exhibitions
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