Julian Rowe

Julian’s particular interest is in historical reference and narrative, both real and imagined. He approaches making as a form of cultural archaeology, seeking contemporary resonances and metaphors in the ideas and cultural baggage of the distant and not-so-distant past. Sources are literary, visual, philosophical, historical, musical, the more diverse the better. In one way or another Julian’s work is essentially assemblage, involving objects, miniatures, painted images, video, all driven by the notion that truly serious art should also be fun.

Julian has shown work internationally, and undertaken a number of public commissions. Exhibitions include: Notes towards a French Opera, School Gallery, Folkestone, Gestures of Resistance, Romantso, Athens; Cherry Time, Elysium Gallery, Swansea; It’s Too Soon to Say, Surface Gallery, Nottingham and Le Fantôme de la Peinture, Rezdechaussée, Bordeaux. He has been awarded prizes at the Quay Arts Open, ING Discerning Eye and Painted Surface. Published work includes The Folkestone Non-Linear Para-Spectrometry Field Study, for a joint work with Terry Perk, and Varieties of Mankind, a contribution to Earthworks Bookwork by film director Andrew Kötting.

Julian lives and works in Kent and has a degree in Philosophy and Art History and an MA in Fine Art.