Esquire Studio Sessions: inside artist Mark Gowing’s language of geometric abstraction
Ahead of his latest solo show, we visited the artist for a tour of his studio
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TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT the artist Mark Gowing’s grid-like compositions, and you’ll notice book spines, page numbers, chapter titles, paragraphs and botanical annotations. That’s because Gowing’s canvases are indeed books. Part of what’s informed his art practice is that it co-existed with his career in publishing: his compositions are laid out like a manuscript, arranged into “bars”, he explains. Only then does he sit down and meticulously paint circles and ovals by hand in various sizes, colours, textures, matte or patent. “It’s meditative,” he says with a smile, his practice still tickling the right side of his brain after all this time.
Gowing’s first solo exhibition, This one is a song, at Damien Minton Presents gallery marks a moment of creative liberation after leaving the world of publishing behind after 35 years to pursue his practice full-time. Works spanning 35 years of his visual art practice are presented in the Surry Hills gallery space. Looking closer still, he tells me that some books were sourced from his library, while others were from vintage bookstores he frequents in Sydney. (If he needs a larger canvas, he’ll order a title in bulk.) Some works feature botanical illustrations; an interest in flora evident in the garden surrounding his studio.
And as for what’s next? While his current works have been informed intuitively from his life in publishing up until now, Gowing is reading up on Mesopotamian languages, glyphs, and ancient stone tablets – to the beginning of written language itself.
Ahead of the solo show, which is now open, we paid the artist a visit at his studio to learn more about how he’s harmonised language and visual forms as his own form of geometric abstraction. Watch his full Esquire Studio Sessions below.
Visit This one is a song at Damien Minton Presents gallery in Sydney from July 16 to July 26.
See more of Esquire’s Studio Sessions:
Daniel Domig’s humanoid houseplants
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran’s eclectic practice
