Artist’s Statement:

“The power of color has been a life long passion.  I’m inspired by qualities from minimalist and color field painters, which is often evident in my works.  Another major inspiration is Nature.  My intent is to develop an abstract visual vocabulary.  Using an innate sense of relationships, I am creating something new yet with a sense of subconscious familiarity.  I have a passion for creating and I hope to bring the wonder of art to others so they can experience the excitement that woke me up to the world as a youth, and which continues to inspire and raise questions.”

Michael Lownie is a San Francisco based artist with an extensive retrospective of work particularly in painting. The new globe series has him experimenting with a vast assortment of adhesives and mixed media in 3-dimensional works. This series is a vehicle through which he can explore a wide variety of themes.  The creation of the intimate dioramas invites the viewer “inside” the works which adds an element of interactivity.

Though also trained in realism, he began to explore abstract painting because it was the strongest intellectual influence on him when he was young. As the popular art in museums from the 50′s through the 70′s, it showed him that there was more to art than just painting a pretty picture.  That whole era stayed with him and he still finds it relevant today.  There was as real an excitement about underground and avant garde artwork as there was in music, which was also waking him up to a wider consciousness.

The intellectual and primal aspects in Modern Art really helped form who he is today.  It inspired him to think about new art, and understand the importance of subtle (and not so subtle) social implications it addressed.  Minimalism, Expressionism, Pop, Color Field…this was the world that said to him, “there’s something important here…adventure, discovery, experimentation, meditation”. The purpose of art changed through these movements and continues to morph into new and wonderful things.

M. Lownie; Welcome!