About the Exhibition

JAMAIS VU

the feeling that one has never seen before something that should be quite familiar when one looks at something familiar, like a common word, it strangely seems meaningless or unrecognised. Stephen Bowers looks over a lot of the overlooked in his work, so this notion of missing the known, the should-be-familiar or the obvious, is somewhat appealing.

Following the success of his Australia-wide touring exhibition (2013-2015) and growing international recognition, Bowers continues to celebrate and provoke with his beautifully detailed decorated ceramics. Drawing inspiration from a variety of sources, his work explores natural history and art history, particularly of ceramics. Further, his work draws on decorative arts historical references and is imbued with his own personal commentary and witticisms. The focus of the exhibition will be a remarkable Camouflage Series dining setting featuring richly adorned serving, dinner and entrée plates, each displaying an Australian parrot, highlighted against a complex layering of background patterns, binding these ambitious works together as a set.   View accompanying exhibition e-catalogue here   We were delighted to have Geoffrey Edwards (recently retired Director, Geelong Art Gallery, and Former Curator of Sculpture, National Gallery of Victoria) open the exhibition, view the video below https://youtu.be/wHCbc590jZw   To hear Stephen talk about his work, please view the video of Stephen Bowers, In Conversation https://youtu.be/y3qTNUAyBfs   To read more about Stephen's work please take A Closer Look At... Stephen Bowers here To read more about the Camouflage series please take A Closer Look At... Stephen Bowers Camouflage series here A stop motion video of the creation of a Camouflage Series plate and one of the pair of The Camouflaged Dogs can be viewed below: Camouflage Series plate Camouflaged Dog  

Camouflage Series dining setting