Matt Dowman
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Born in Whanganui in 1973 and raised in Taumaranui, Matt Dowman relocated to Auckland in 1995 to further his artistic career. He began study at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design in 1999, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2002 before going on to complete his Masters in Fine Arts (with Honours) at Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts in 2004.
Dowman's work incorporates the painterly and the street, high art and popular culture, expressionism and loose figuration in one tumultuous whirl of half-seen stencil, gestural brushstrokes, spray paint effects and often obscenely coloured and peristaltic intestinal forms that buckle and sway throughout the canvas. His particular blend offragmented images suggest the constant and fragmented nature of advertising imagery in modern urban life, while those of his works that edge toward more organic forms test the boundaries of Abstract Expressionism in the Postmodern era.
Dowman has won numerous scholar shipsand was a finalist in the 2003 Mazda emerging Arts Award and the 2003 Wallace Trust Awards. In 2004, he was nominated as a finalistin the Trust Waikato Contemporary art Award and in 2008 he wasrunner-up in the New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award. Since2000, Dowman has held five solo exhibitions in Auckland and participated in numerous other group shows and events including theopening of Disrupt gallery and public installation in the Britomart precinct. His works are held in notable New Zealand collections including the Fletcher Trust and Wallace Trust and his work is increasingly gaining an international following. Dowman currently tutors in the Fine Arts faculty at Whitecliffe College of Art and Design.