About
Josh Rowell (b. 1990, UK) focuses his practice on the technological advances that shape our contemporary lives. Rowell’s work is designed to exist on the boundary between the real and the virtual; taking inspiration from the digital the artist then re-works these ideas by hand using traditional techniques such as painting and mosaic sculpting. In doing so, Rowell is attempting to reverse the trend in which more and more of our daily lives are becoming enveloped by the digital world. A playful merging of the ancient world with the ultra modern is evident throughout Rowell’s practice in which classical texts are reinvented as complex coding systems and internet memes become mosaic artefacts.
Born in 1990 in Kent, England, Rowell graduated from Kingston Art School in 2013, where he received a first class BFA with honours. Following a course in Art Criticism at Central Saint Martins college, Rowell returned to Kingston Art School for an MFA in 2015, where he was awarded a first class distinction. His works have been exhibited in London, New York, Miami, Seattle, Basel, Hong Kong, Mexico, Italy and the UAE, and his works are part of public collections including the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Gregorian Foundation in Washington, London Kingston University's contemporary art collection, and the Matilda collection in San Miguel De Allende as well as numerous high profile corporate collections around the world. In 2017/18 he had his first museum exhibition at the Palacio Nacional de Guatemala. Rowell won the Public Choice award at the VIA Arts Prize 2017, and was included in Future Now, the yearly publication by Aesthetica listing the 100 most interesting emerging artists from that year. In 2019 he was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London and later in the year was invited to participate in the 9th edition of the Dentons Art Prize for which he was announced as joint-winner in 2020. Later in 2020 he was selected for the group exhibition ‘False Memory’ at Rugby Art Museum, UK, curated by renowned British artist Lindsay Seers. In 2021, Rowell was included in the groundbreaking exhibition NFT | IRL, at Firetti Cotmeporary, Dubai. It was the first exhibition of it’s type to show physical works each accompanied by an NFT counterpart. In 2023 Josh Rowell will had two major solo exhibitions, one in Italy with Atipografia Gallery and one in Dubai with Firetti Contemporary.
Rowell has works in private collections as well, in the UK, USA, Canada, China, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Monte Carlo, Australia, Ireland, Russia, Kuwait, Bermuda, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, and Peru.
