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Andrea Bowers

Andrea Bowers

  • Biography
  • Works
  • Gallery Exhibitions
  • External Exhibitions
  • News
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  • Biography
    Photo: Anais-Dax
    Photo: Anais-Dax
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    Born 1965 in Wilmington, OH
    Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

     

    Over the last 20 years Andrea Bowers has gained an international reputation as an artist and social activist. For Bowers, political engagement and artistic expression are inseparable. Her practice, which includes drawings, videos and installations, addresses a wide range of relevant socio-political issues from women’s and worker’s rights and the arms industry, to immigration politics and the climate crisis. Storytelling is integral to the work, and part of her activism consists of highlighting the narratives of resistance and rebellion.

     

    Bowers has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (2024); Galleria d’Arte Moderna Milano in collaboration with Fondazione Furla, Milan (2022); The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2022); Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2021/2022); Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (2020); Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen (2019/2020); Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2017); Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris (2014); Wiener Secession, Vienna (2007); and The Power Plant, Toronto (2007). Bowers has exhibited internationally in biennials and major institutional group exhibitions, including Kunstmuseum Bonn (2023); Hayward Gallery, London (2023); Kunstmueum Ravensburg (2023); Kuntsmuseum Wolfsburg (2022); Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2022); Berkeley Art Museum (2021); Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2021); Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (2020); Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2018); Documenta 14, Fridericianum, Kassel (2017); Triennale Milano, Milan (2017); Aspen Art Museum (2016); and Albertina, Vienna (2015). Bowers’ work is held in the collections of The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; MoMA, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Museum Of Contemporary Art, Chicago, among others.

    Download Artist's CV (PDF, opens in a new tab.)
  • Installation view: Rewilding, Kunsthaus Baselland, Münchenstein, 2024
  • Andrea Bowers, Chandeliers of Interconnectedness (Behind Naming Before Speaking Beneath Words, Quote by Susan Griffin), 2023
    Artworks

    Andrea Bowers

    Chandeliers of Interconnectedness (Behind Naming Before Speaking Beneath Words, Quote by Susan Griffin), 2023
    Steel, neon and fused glass
    136 x 100 x 88 cm
    53.5 x 39.3 x 34.7 inches
  • Installation view: Andrea Bowers and Mary Weatherford, Drink the Wild Air, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, 2023
  • Andrea Bowers, Live in the Sunshine, Swim the Sea, Drink the Wild Air (Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson), 2023
    Artworks

    Andrea Bowers

    Live in the Sunshine, Swim the Sea, Drink the Wild Air (Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson), 2023
    Neon
    113 x 304 x 5.5 cm
    44.5 x 119.7 x 2.2 inches
    Edition of 3 + 1 AP
  • Andrea Bowers, Sabo-Tabby, From Modern Witch House, 2022
    Artworks

    Andrea Bowers

    Sabo-Tabby, From Modern Witch House, 2022
    Cardboard and color changing LED lights, 7 colors
    98 x 82 x 15.5 cm
    38.5 x 32 x 6 inches
    Enquire
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  • Works
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Andrea Bowers, Beloved Community (Quote by Martin Luther King, Jr), 2023

    Andrea Bowers

    Beloved Community (Quote by Martin Luther King, Jr), 2023
    Neon
    68 x 90 x 5.5 cm
    26.8 x 35.4 x 2.2 inches
    Edition of 3 + 1 AP
    B-ABOWERS-.23-0008
    Andrea Bowers frequently incorporates slogans into her works, drawing from grassroots activism and protest movements to amplify voices of resistance. Inspired by the cinematic aesthetics of American urban landscapes, particularly...
    Read more
    Andrea Bowers frequently incorporates slogans into her works, drawing from grassroots activism and protest movements to amplify voices of resistance. Inspired by the cinematic aesthetics of American urban landscapes, particularly the allure of neon signs, Bowers merges the energy of cityscapes with the urgent messages of activism.
    By transforming these vibrant urban symbols into striking neon artworks, she preserves their immediacy while elevating them as enduring symbols of rebellion and cultural resonance.

    ‘Beloved Community’ references a quote from MLK containing two simple words that embrace the basic human necessity for democracy and love. Created for the joint exhibition with Mary Weatherford titled ‘Drink The Wild Air’, the neon work is characteristic of the artist’s use of activist slogans and signage to engage with narratives of resistance and rebellion. Her practice, which includes drawings, videos and installations, addresses a wide range of relevant sociopolitical issues from women’s and worker’s rights and the arms industry, to immigration politics and the climate crisis.
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    Exhibitions

    The Body as Sign, Kunstmuseum Mülheim an der Ruhr, 23.02. – 07.09.2025

    Publications

    Drink the Wild Air - Andrea Bowers and Mary Weatherford, exhibition catalogue Capitain Petzel, Berlin 2023.
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    8 
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  • Exhibitions
    • Andrea Bowers and Mary Weatherford

      Andrea Bowers and Mary Weatherford

      Drink the Wild Air 23 June  —  19 August 2023
      Mary Weatherford and Andrea Bowers have often talked about making a show together. Bowers suggested that she would make neons while Weatherford would make paintings, a serious joke that neither...
      Explore
    • omelette papier

      omelette papier

      15 January  —  5 March 2022
      Karla Black, Andrea Bowers, Joe Bradley, Isabella Ducrot, Jadé Fadojutimi, Hadi Fallahpisheh, Anna Gaskell, Georgia Gardner Gray, Stefanie Heinze, Charline von Heyl, Sanya Kantarovsky, Maria Lassnig, Marcel Odenbach, Pieter Schoolwerth,...
      Explore
    • RHIZOME 7/7 IRL

      RHIZOME 7/7 IRL

      21 June  —  1 August 2020
      'A rhizome is characterized by ceaselessly established connections between semiotic chains, organizations of power, and circumstances relative to the arts, sciences, and social struggles.' -Excerpt from A Thousand Plateaus by...
      Explore
    • Andrea Bowers

      Andrea Bowers

      Open Secret 22 June  —  11 August 2018
      When comedian/actor Aziz Ansari was accused of sexual harassment on January 14, 2018 by an anonymous 23-year-old woman, the story was met with a mixed response from the media and...
      Explore
    • Andrea Bowers

      Andrea Bowers

      Cultivating the Courage to Sin 20 September  —  9 November 2013
      Capitain Petzel is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition by Los Angeles based artist Andrea Bowers entitled „Cultivating the Courage to Sin“ and that Andrea Bowers is now represented...
      Explore
  • External Exhibitions
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: 04 Andrea Bowers Gallery
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Furla Bowers 15
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Photo 06 Joshua White Jwpictures Com 4Q6A8730
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Andreabowers 20211117 0231
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Bild 16
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Andrea Bowers Museum Abteiberg 20
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Andrea Bowers Kunstverein Bremen
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Schirn Frankfurt Andrea Bowers
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: High Line New York Andrea Bowers
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Bowers Climate Change
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Andrea Bowers Hammer Museum Los Angeles
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Cincinnati Art Andrea Bowers Womxn Workers
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Bowers 2014 Pomona College Museum Of Art 11
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Moca Detroit Andrea Bowers
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Bowers Andrea Miami
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Athens Project Room Andrea Bowers

    Andrea Bowers. Exist, Flourish, Evolve, 2024

    Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland

  • News
    • Andrea Bowers

      Andrea Bowers

      'Ordinary People: Photorealism and the Work of Art since 1968' (Group Show), The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
      November 23, 2024 – May 4, 2025
      23 November 2024
      The first large-scale exhibition to reexamine the postwar art movement of photorealism and trace its lineages in art of the present day, Ordinary People: Photorealism...
      Read more
    • Andrea Bowers

      Andrea Bowers

      'Wrongs & RIGHTS' (Group Show), Women Studies Research Center, Brandeis University
      September 12, 2024 – January 30, 2025
      12 September 2024
      Wrongs & RIGHTS brings together five decades of work supporting the intergenerational battle for reproductive rights , while speaking in a wider sense to...
      Read more
    • Andrea Bowers

      Andrea Bowers

      'Incandescence: The Chandelier in Contemporary Art' (Group Show), Shirley Fiterman Art Center at BMCC, New York
      September 6, 2024 – January 4, 2025
      6 September 2024
      CUNY art galleries present a new exhibition spread across three venues, tracing the motif of the chandelier in contemporary art, in all its bedazzling glory....
      Read more
    • Andrea Bowers

      Andrea Bowers

      'Too Much Future' (Group Show), Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf
      August 28, 2024 – January 5, 2025
      28 August 2024
      For the first time, the Kunstpalast presents works from Florian Peters-Messer’s extensive donation, which the Viersen collector made to mark his 60 th birthday. The...
      Read more
    • Andrea Bowers

      Andrea Bowers

      'Les Mondes Imaginaires' (Group Show), Espace Monte-Cristo, Villa Datris Foundation
      April 13 – December 15, 2024
      13 April 2024
      For more information, click here .
      Read more
    • Andrea Bowers

      Andrea Bowers

      'Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture' (Group Show), SFMOMA - San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
      October 19, 2024 – February 18, 2025
      26 November 2024
      Art about athletes? Check. Art created by athletes? You bet. Football helmet design from the 1920s to today? Yep. Opportunities to play artworks, including a...
      Read more
  • Press
    • Andrea Bowers, Chandeliers of Interconnectedness (Behind Naming Before Speaking Beneath Words, Quote by Susan Griffin) (2023). Steel, neon, and fused glass. 136 x 100 x 88 cm. © Andrea Bowers. Courtesy the artist and Capitain Petzel, Berlin. Photo: Gunter Lepkowski

      ocula: "Six Standout Works by Women at Art Basel Paris 2024" (Andrea Bowers)

      Simon Fisher, Eva Fuchs, and Rory Mitchell, 16 October 2024
    • Works by Andrea Bowers in the inaugural show at The Campus in Claverack, New York. Photo by Yael Eban and Matthew Gamber

      The Art Newspaper: "Art is on the curriculum at The Campus, a former school in upstate New York transformed by six galleries" (Andrea Bowers)

      Benjamin Sutton, 3 July 2024
    • Artist Andrea Bowers working on elements of Chandelier of Interconnectedness for Ruinart at Frieze New York. ©Anais and Dax. Image courtesy the artist and Ruinart

      aartnet: "Artist-Activist Andrea Bowers on Her Unlikely New Collaborator"

      Eileen Kinsella, 3 May 2024
    • Portrait of Andrea Bowers, photo by Anais & Dax, courtesy of the artist and Ruinart.

      Whitewall: "Andrea Bowers and Ruinart Debut Conversations with Nature for Frieze LA"

      Erica Silverman, 27 February 2024
    • Work in progress on the glass and neon leaves (Image credit: Molly Matalon)

      Wallpaper: 'Andrea Bowers’ sculptural chandelier for Ruinart reflects a shared commitment to environmental conservation'

      Hannah Silver, 22 February 2024
    • Installation View, Andrea Bowers and Mary Weatherford, 'Drink the Wild Air', Capitain Petzel, 2023, Ph: Gunther Lepkowski

      Spike: "Terrible Stories, Beautifully Written" (Andrea Bowers, Mary Weatherford)

      10 August 2023
    • Patrick Pleul, dpa

      Zeit: "Der Wunsch nach Frieden, Kunstschau in Altdöbern" (Andrea Bowers)

      dpa, 13 June 2023
    • Andrea Bowers, Letters to an Army of Three, 2005 (video still)

      Art in America: "One Work: Andrea Bowers's 'Letter to an Army of Three'"

      Jackson Davidow , 25 August 2022
    • © Taz Essa

      Los Angeles Times: "Andrea Bowers' activist art has long been a conduit for hope — and still is today"

      Catherine Womack, 8 July 2022
    • Installation view, Andrea Bowers, Hammer Museum. Ph: Charles White / JWStudio

      Los Angeles Times: "At the Hammer Museum, Andrea Bowers’ art becomes an act of nonviolent civil disobedience"

      Christopher Knight, 6 July 2022
    • Installation view of Andrea Bowers’ “Political Ribbons (Hammer Museum)” in 2017. Photo: Brian Forrest; from the artist

      Los Angeles Times: "‘The time is now’" (Andrea Bowers)

      Deborah Vankin, 3 June 2022
    • Andrea Bowers, It is Good to Remember that the Planet is Carrying You, Quote by Vandana Shiva (Ecofeminist Oak Branch Series), 2021

      Art Agenda: "Andrea Bowers’s “Can the world mend in this body?”"

      Brian Karl, 8 April 2022
    • Installation view, Andrea Bowers, MCA Chicago, November 20, 2021 – March 27, 2022 © MCA Chicago. Ph: Nathan Keay

      New City Art: "Engines of Change. Andrea Bowers Highlights Activists Making History"

      Kerry Cardoza, 7 January 2022
    • The artist Andrea Bowers at her studio in Los Angeles, before the opening of her major survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Tree defense is a recurring theme in her work.Credit - Rozette Rago for The New York Times

      The New York Times: "Andrea Bowers: Her Activism Animates Her Art"

      Siddhartha Mitter, 30 December 2021
    • The altar had traveled through various neighborhoods in Chicago before landing at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in November. Credit: Nathan Keay/MCA Chicago

      The New York Times: "A Monument to the Lives of Black Women and Girls" (ANDREA BOWERS)

      Gina Cherelus, 7 December 2021
    • Installation view: Amtsalon  Courtesy Capitain Petzel, Berlin. Ph: Gunter Lepkowski

      Weltkunst: "Amtsalon: Freispruch für die Kunst"

      Christiane Meixner, 17 June 2021
    • Andrea Bowers, „Grief and Hope“, Museum Abteiberg 2020 (Ausstellungsansicht)

      WDR: "Wieder vom Wetter reden! Andrea Bowers in Mönchengladbach"

      6 April 2020
    • Andrea Bowers, grief and hope, Ausstellungsansicht Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Foto: Achim Kukulies

      Kunstforum: "Andrea Bowers: grief and hope"

      Renate Puvogel, 1 March 2020
    • Andrea Bowers: My Name Means Future, 2020, video, 51 minutes, 6 seconds; at Andrew Kreps.

      Artnews: "Andrea Bowers Portrays the Future of Activism"

      David Everitt Howe, 1 March 2020
  • Publications
    • Andrea Bowers, Mary Weatherford

      Andrea Bowers, Mary Weatherford

      Drink the Wild Air, Capitain Petzel, 2023 2023
      Softcover
      Read more
    • Andrea Bowers

      Andrea Bowers

      Andrea Bowers, 2021 2021
      Hardcover, 208 pages
      Publisher: DelMonico Books/Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago/Hammer Museum
      Dimensions: 21.1 x 29.2 cm
      Read more
    • Andrea Bowers

      Andrea Bowers

      #sweetjane, Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont, CA, 2014 2014
      Softcover, 184 pages
      ISBN: 9780985625139
      Dimensions: 20,3 x 28 cm
      Read more
    • Andrea Bowers

      Andrea Bowers

      Between Artists: Andrea Bowers & Catherine Opie, 2008 2008
      Paperback, 72 pages
      Publisher: A.R.T PRESS
      ISBN: 9780923183448
      Read more
    • Andrea Bowers

      Andrea Bowers

      Secession, Vienna, 2008 2008
      Softcover, 64 pages
      Publisher: Secession
      ISBN: 9783902592125
      Read more
    • Andrea Bowers

      Andrea Bowers

      Nothing is Neutral, REDCAT, Los Angeles, 2006 2006
      Softcover, 160 pages
      Publisher: California Institute of the Arts/REDCAT
      ISBN: 0974983144
      Read more
  • Video

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