Keith Bowers
I embrace humor as well as horror as an artist. Most of my oil paintings and junk sculptures involve surreal, disjointed characters, brightly colored and starkly rendered. I use these odd individuals in their ethereal settings to introduce questions and engage viewers. Many inhabitants of my work unite unlikely elements – human, ghost, mannequin, machine. They are simultaneously ambiguous and absolute. One might think of them as familiar strangers: Do they inhabit some alternate universe, or do they walk among us? An Oregon artist once said that if my works had a voice, they would say, “I am a fact. Deal with me.”
Through art, I also illustrate my own story. I grew up in a military family, my dad a Navy aviator and my mom an antique trader and artist. Involuntarily cast into this nomadic subculture whose members attempt to lead interesting, orderly lives while surrounded by advanced weaponry and symbols of death and glory, I inhabited the nexus of humor, horror and reflection. It's no wonder I came to embrace the surreal and the absurd.
In addition to being an artist, I am a career journalist, occasional stage performer and perpetual fashion experiment. From July 2017 to June 2019, I was a member artist at Art in the Valley Gallery in Corvallis. For roughly the same time period I sat on the Exhibition Committee at the Arts Center, also in Corvallis. I am an exhibiting member of the Corvallis Art Guild. In the past I have belonged to one other cooperative gallery and several informal artist groups. I have shown my work in galleries, coffeehouses, bookstores, tattoo shops and one very weird bakery since the mid-1990s in Corvallis and Philomath; Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska; and California locales including Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, Alameda, Sacramento and San Jose.
Through art, I also illustrate my own story. I grew up in a military family, my dad a Navy aviator and my mom an antique trader and artist. Involuntarily cast into this nomadic subculture whose members attempt to lead interesting, orderly lives while surrounded by advanced weaponry and symbols of death and glory, I inhabited the nexus of humor, horror and reflection. It's no wonder I came to embrace the surreal and the absurd.
In addition to being an artist, I am a career journalist, occasional stage performer and perpetual fashion experiment. From July 2017 to June 2019, I was a member artist at Art in the Valley Gallery in Corvallis. For roughly the same time period I sat on the Exhibition Committee at the Arts Center, also in Corvallis. I am an exhibiting member of the Corvallis Art Guild. In the past I have belonged to one other cooperative gallery and several informal artist groups. I have shown my work in galleries, coffeehouses, bookstores, tattoo shops and one very weird bakery since the mid-1990s in Corvallis and Philomath; Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska; and California locales including Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, Alameda, Sacramento and San Jose.
