DAY BOWMAN
Growing up in a holiday destination, small, seaside town it is not surprising that much of my work has referenced the sea, the beach and the littoral. In these paintings I find that the canvases echo the marks, lines and shapes that we made in the wet, grey sand of my home town beach: thus the canvas becomes the beach that acted as the canvas of my childhood.
Along with scratched childhood messages to the gods, our childhood castles in the sand were built to keep out the marauding tidal waters; today, I find within these works a questioning on the notion of place, identity and belonging.
Tearing up the Rule Book, a solo international exhibition at Westminster Reference Library London and Atelier Melusine France, was praised by critics and bloggers at its London showing in March 2019, Artlyst reviewed the show saying… ’there’s something very irresistible in Day Bowman’s abstract paintings… it has something to do with the tactility of their surfaces.’
Day’s work is held in numerous private and public collections worldwide including Hilton Hotel Group, British Dental Association, Dorset County Hospital, St. Vincent and Grenadines Govt. Art Collection, the Priseman Seabrook Collection and the Yantai Art Museum Collection China.
A graduate of the Chelsea School of Art and London University, her painting is characterised by chaotic mark-making and gestural brushstrokes.
Bowman’s work has been shown nationally and internationally at venues including The Bluecoat Liverpool (2014); Royal Academy Summer
Exhibition London (2026); a four museum tour of China with Contemporary British Painting (2017/18); Norwich Cathedral (2019);Wells Art Contemporary (2021) Venice Biennale (2019); Daile Gallery Berlin (solo show 2021) BEEP International Painting Swansea (2024) and commissioned to produce a series of giant hoardings for Olympic Sailing and Paralympic Sailing events in 2012.
Awards include: First Prize in the Anima Mundi International Painting Prize and exhibited at the Venice Biennale 2019; First Prize in the Bath
Arts Open 2019 and First Prize for the inaugural Wales Contemporary 2019. She was winner of the Winsor & Newton Prize 2020 by the Royal Institute for Painters in Watercolours and long listed for the Jackson Painting Prize 2022.
A member of Contemporary British Painting, Day Bowman’s work is held in numerous private and public collections worldwide including Hilton
Hotel Group; British Dental Association; Dorset County Hospital, St. Vincent and Grenadines Govt. Art Collection, the Priseman Seabrook Collection and the Yantai Art Museum Collection China.