Prior to this he taught on the Foundation programmes at Croydon School of Art and at Leeds College of Art. He studied on the Foundation Course at Leeds College of Art and then completed his BA at Leeds Metropolitan University. He is the co-director of the exhibitions programme blip blip blip. He has curated exhibitions for Copperfield Gallery, Cactus, XO amongst others. As well as exhibiting individually as an artist, he is also part of the collaborative art practice Doug Bowen and Sean Kaye.
Education
University of Huddersfield — PGCE Lifelong Learning, 2016 — Outstanding (forecast);
Leeds Metropolitan University — BA (Hons) Fine Art, 2014 — First Class.
Teaching Experience
Croydon School of Art — Lecturer; Leeds College of Art (2015–2016) — Lecturer;
Bradford College (2015) — Lecturer; Leonard Cheshire Disability, North Yorkshire (2008–2015) — Volunteer Workshop Leader/Assistant.
Doug Bowen’s research interests derive from art pedagogy, in particular, exploring art world structures, situations or scenarios that give licence to students’ independence outside of the art school curriculum. This research is being pursued through a series of ongoing projects such as The Gallery in the Expanded Field, + and The Tuesday Interview, as well as through the wider exhibitions programme of blip blip blip.
Projects
A curatorial programme which is committed to examining and fostering relationships between contemporary art practice and art education. Since 2011, art students have been involved in the running of the programme from installing and invigilating shows through to helping artists realise works and curating exhibitions. It sets out to connect young art students with a network of artists of national and international standing. It is both an exhibitions programme and an educational enrichment programme for art students, encouraging students to volunteer and to supplement their official course curriculum by becoming active in the blip blip blip programme. This programme provides an experience of the many facets of exhibition making, encouraging students to be proactive in their engagements with the art world. It functions as a platform for, and dialogue between, art students and emerging and mid-career artists to foster important relationships and networks within and beyond their city. blip blip blip has established links with international organisations in order to provide opportunities for art students and has recently developed projects with both the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam and the European Exchange Academy.
The Gallery in the Expanded Field
I. 25.05.2021 – 25.06.2021 II. 14.06.2023 – 06.07.2023
The Gallery in the Expanded Field is a series of exhibitions that explore the possibilities of what could constitute an art gallery through presenting the programmes of a series of interesting 'galleries' some of which have now ceased to exist and some of which are still functioning. The project has to date, showcased gallery spaces from a range of countries including Australia, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Russia and United States of America, by presenting documentary images and text of the history of these exhibition programmes, alongside, in some cases, new projects made specifically for The Gallery in the Expanded Field. The exhibitions are realised with assistance of students from the British Higher School of Art and Design. Small groups of students are partnered with each gallery space, the students are responsible for interviewing the directors of these gallery spaces to form the content of a series of publications, as well as fabricating elements of the exhibition for the gallery space they have been allocated to work with. The participating 'galleries' have included the historically significant apartment shows of the group APTART, an art school locker, an exhibitions programme that has been functioning for over 25 years out of its curators' overcoat, a small Scottish town and a gallery that only had one show before it was blown away in a sandstorm in New Mexico. A catalogue documenting the first stage of this research will be published in 2024.
+
2022 - ongoing
A one-week project that partners Foundation (Communication Design pathway) students from various art institutions around the world. It was initiated in 2019 with fifty-one students from the British Higher School of Art and Design (BHSAD) in Moscow, Russia and twenty students from Escola Britânica de Artes Criativas in São Paulo, Brazil. Continuing in 2020 with forty-five BHSAD students and twenty-three counterparts from the Beijing Academy of Creative Arts in Beijing, China. The project is ongoing with an expanding network of international partners.
The Tuesday Interview
2023 - ongoing
A series of student-led interviews with international artists and designers. The invited practitioners do not deliver a talk, conversely a group of student research prior to the interview, preparing questions in relation to sourced texts, information, reviews, etc. Participants have included: Daniel Eatock, Nick Thurston, Claudia Doms, Mikkel Sommer, Jack Taylor, Ott Kagovere, Sasha Fominskaya (Open Sesame).
Research Outputs
The Gallery in the Expanded Field II
14.06.2023 – 06.07.2023
blip blip blip, Moscow
Exhibition
Young Artists in Conversation: Doug Bowen with Daria Gitmanovich
05.05.2022 Online
www.youngartistsinconversation.co.uk/Daria-Gitmanovich
Invited Speaker
Cover Version
03.02.2022 – 08.04.2022
www.blipblipblip.co/cover-version
blip blip blip, Moscow
Exhibition
INFE (International Network of Foundation Educators) Past, Present and Future : Collective Imaginings
03.12.2021 Online and live at FutureLab, Shanghai
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTCFvLmjDr0
Conference Paper
The Gallery in the Expanded Field I
25.05.2021 – 25.06.2021
www.blipblipblip.co/the-gallery-in-the-expanded-field
blip blip blip, Moscow
Exhibition
INFE (International Network of Foundation Educators) A Celebration : Foundation Projects
22.06.2021 Online
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjFumuyHeNg
Conference Paper
Talent Show
03.03.2021 – 09.04.2021
www.blipblipblip.co/talent-show
blip blip blip, Moscow
Exhibition
Foundations: 100 years after VKhUTEMAS
10.11.2020 – 26.02.2021
www.blipblipblip.co/foundations
blip blip blip, Moscow
Exhibition
The VKhUTEMAS Legacy: British Foundation courses and their link to educational avant-garde practices of the first part of the 20th century
05.12.2020
www.blipblipblip.co/the-gallery-in-the-expanded-field
blip blip blip, Moscow
Misha Levin in conversation with Sean Kaye, Geoff Teasdale, Doug Bowen, Daria Sorokina, Alyona Sokolnikova & Ksenia Efimova.
Invited Speaker
Dreamworks
22.06.2018 – 08.07.2018
www.itskindof.com/iko/dreamworks.html
Curated by It's Kind of Hard to Explain for Limbo, Margate, UK
Exhibition
Dreamworks
22.06.2018 – 08.07.2018
www.itskindof.com/downloads/dreamworks.pdf
Publication
Mantel
16.02.2018 – 10.03.2018
www.copperfieldgallery.com/mantel.html
Curated for Copperfield Gallery, London
Exhibition
HyperPavilion
11.05.2017 – 30.10.2017
Assistant Curator for 57th Venice Biennale satellite exhibition
Exhibition
General Studies
23.06.2016 – 24.07.2017
www.norwichoutpost.org/programme/general-studies
Curated by Jonathan P. Watts & Ryan Gander for Outpost, Norwich
Exhibition
Display Show
19.09.2015 – 12.12.2015
www.eastsideprojects.org/projects/display-show/
Curated by Céline Condorelli, Gavin Wade, James Langdon for Eastside Projects, Birmingham
Exhibition
You think the only people who are people are the people who look like you. But if you walk in the footsteps of a stranger, you learn things you never knew you never knew
24.07.2015 – 09.082015
Two Queens, Leicester
Exhibition
