Born 1965, Walsall (UK) - Lives and works in London
Sean Dower produces works in sculpture, photography, film, sound and live performance. His works in various media often retain a performative element.
Dower studied Fine Art (Sculpture) at Camberwell School of Art and Design before attending the residency programme of the Rijksakademie van Beeldenden Kunsten in Amsterdam. He has been exhibiting his work internationally in galleries, museums and other contexts since the early 1990's and has been engaged in music and live performance since 1983.
For his first solo exhibition at Matt's Gallery in London in 1997, Dower produced a site-specific, '3D' Zombie film. His work has been included in exhibitions at MOMA New York, Tate Modern, Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London and Krinzinger Gallery, Vienna. Recent exhibitions and performances have included: Southard reid Gallery' London, Tate Britain, London, The New Art Gallery - Walsall, UK (PARTY!) and Netwerk Centre for Contemporary Art - Aalst, Belgium ('Musik für Barbaren und Klassiker')
Study: BA hons (Sculpture) Camberwell School of Art (1988 -1991)
Residency Programme: Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam (1993 - 1995)
Solo Exhibitions: 2011 -SOUTHARD REID London. UK 2008 -'K48 Presents' Vienna, Austria 2001 - Project Space, Centraal Museum, Utrecht. NL.
- 'Audiopathology', W139 Gallery, Amsterdam, NL.
1999 - Lokaal 01, Antwerp, Belgium.
1998 - 'Rorschac' Exedra, Hilversum, Netherlands.
1997 - Portfolio Kunst AG, Vienna.
1997 - 'No Room in Hell'. Matt's Gallery, London - (review in Frieze magazine)
Group Exhibitions: 2011 - Change the World or Go Home - Downstairs Gallery, Great Brampton House, Herefordshire, UK - 'Dimensions in British Contemporary Art’, various venues – India - Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea. UK 2010 - 'A Snowball Effect’ Mains d’Oeuvres St Ouen. France
- 'Taps: Improvisations with Paul burwell' Matt's Gallery at Dilston Grove, London
- 'Keep me Posted', Posted Projects London
- 'Musik fur Barbaren und Klassiker' Netwerk Centrum, Aalst. Belgium - 'Riff-Raff', Q - Lower John Street, London. UK
- 'PARTY!'- The New Art Gallery Walsall. UK
- 'Film / Video / Performance' Wimbledon Space, London. UK
2009 - ‘Royal Academy of Arts Summer Show’ - London. UK
- ‘Röck’ Galerie Erich Mircher, Paris 2008 - 'Brown Noise'. Maurice Einhardt Neu Gallery, London. UK
- ‘Party at the Moontower’. Road Agent Gallery, Dallas. USA
- 'Noise' George Rodger Gallery, Maidstone. UK
- ‘Nothing Moments’ Public Trust Gallery, Dallas. USA
2007 - ‘Post Paolo Futurum’ Museum of Breda, Breda. Netherlands
- ‘Nothing Moments’ Steve Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles. USA
- ‘Nothing Moments’ Silvermann Gallery, San Francisco. USA
- ‘Screenshow’ Meeting House Square. Dublin
- ‘Single-shot’ Various venues in UK & Ireland
2006 - ‘Single-shot’ Tate Britain, London. UK
- ‘Public Utilities’ South London Gallery (screening for Chris Burden exhibition)
- ‘Summertime’ David Patton Los Angeles. USA
2005 - 'Speedorama', Drive in Cinema, Oslo & Touring, Norway
- 'Wonderings', The Great Unsigned, 47 Great Eastern Street, London. UK
- ‘Les Merveilles du Monde’, Dunkerque Museum of Fine Arts. France
- ‘Ab Ovo’, Steven Wolf Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA. USA
2004 - ‘A Temporary Monument to David McComb’ STUK, Leueven. Belgium
- ‘Video Hits, Art & Music Video’. Queensland Art Gallery. Australia.
- ‘Artist’s Films on Music Culture’. National Film Theatre, London UK.
- ‘Clerkenwell Film and Video Festival’ (London) - The Story of Dick Donkeys Dawn.
(Short-listed for The Ken Russell short film award)
- ‘Schabbernak’ - Netwerk Gallerie, Aalst. Belgium (with guy Bar-Amotz).
2003 - ‘The Greatest show on Earth’ Metropolitan Galleries, Folkestone. UK
2002 - ‘Us and Them’, Great Eastern Hotel. London UK.
- ‘Air Guitar’, Milton Keynes Gallery (And touring UK)
- ‘Song Poems’ Rosamund Felson Gallery, Los Angeles. USA
2001 - ‘Century City’ (Flag), Tate Modern, London. UK
- ‘Song Poems’, Leslie Cohen & Brown Gallery, New York. USA
2000 - ‘Become Like Me’, Stills Gallery, Edinburgh (& touring)
- ‘Point of View’, Richard Salmon Gallery, London. UK
- ‘Video Art from Great Britain’ - Sao Paolo, Brasil and touring South America.
1999 - ‘Touch of Evil’ – Metronom (Foundation Raphael Tous) Barcelona. Spain
- ‘Pallid House’, W139 Gallery, Amsterdam. NL
- Rosamund Felson Gallery, Los Angeles. USA
- ‘Fourth Wall’, Outdoor screening - South Bank Centre, London. UK
- ‘to be continued >.’ - Walsall Museum and Art Gallery. UK
1998 - ‘New Video Art from Great Britain’. Museum of Modern Art, New York. USA
- ‘Places to Stay’, Bureau Friedrich, Berlin. Germany
- ‘UK Maximum Diversity’ - Gallerie Krinzinger, Vienna & Bregenz, Austria
- ‘Backspace’ - Matt’s Gallery, London. UK
1997 - Gallerie Krinzinger, Vienna. Austria.
- Montreal International Festival of Cinema and New Media. Canada.
- ‘Sean sells subliminals’ - Factual Nonsense – Live Stock Market, London. UK
1996 - ‘I Beg To Differ’ - Milch Gallery, London. UK
- ‘Against’ - Anthony D’Offay Gallery, London. UK
- ‘Rational Behaviour’ The Tannery, London. UK (Curator & exhibitor)
- ‘Pandemonium’. ICA, London. UK
1995 - ‘Lost Property’ - W139 Gallery, Amsterdam & The Lost Goods Building, London. UK
(Co-curator / exhibitor)
1991 - ‘SAFE’ - Regent’s Wharfe, London. UK
- '15/1', Melania Basarab, London. UK
Performances:
2011 - Late at Tate. Performance by Bag of Blood at Cabaret Apocalyptica 2010 - Cabaret Futura, The Paradise Club - London. UK - Live soundtrack/performance for a film by Charlotte Moth. At Halle Fuer Kunst, Lüneburg. Germany
- 'Donder op Dender (a blizzard of noise' Netwerk Centrum, Aalst. Belgium 2009 - ‘Röck’ (The Horns of Dilemma) - Galerie Erich Mircher, Paris. France 2008 - ‘Ghost Drummer’ – Maurice Einhardt Neu Gallery, London. UK. 2007 - ‘20 pieces of silver’ – IKON Gallery, Birmingham. UK.
- ‘Tribute / Wake’ for Paul Burwell (1949-2007), State 51, London. UK
- ‘3 on the floor’ - The Klinker, London. UK
2006 - ‘Break it Down’. Timothy Taylor Gallery, London. UK (With Richard Wilson)
- ‘Rational Lo-Tech’, Bethnal Green Working Men’s club, London. UK
- ‘Four on the Floor’ – 'How to improve the world', Hayward Gallery, London. UK.
- ‘Drum duet II’ – Barbican Curve Gallery, London. UK(with Richard Wilson)
2005 - ‘Audio Addiction’, Curator & performer - Delfina Studios, London. UK
(With Guy Bar-Amotz, z’ev, Natsuki Uruma, Richard Wilson)
2004 -‘Drum Duet’. With R. Wilson. Wapping Pumping Station, London. UK
- The mobile DJ (with G.B.Amotz) - For the exhibition Schabbernak at Netwerk Gallerie, Aalst. Belgium
2002 - Performance for ‘Song Poems’ exhibition - Palace Theatre, Los Angeles. USA
1999 - Live Stock Market, Factual Nonsense, Southbank, London. UK(Drum Tent with R. Wilson)
1997 - 1999 - ‘Dick Donkeys Dawn’ - The band (with G. Starr and O. Hangl).
1996 - 1997 - Interspecies Lovechild, (with Matthew Collins) Touring.
1988 - 1991 - Member of Bow Gamelan Ensemble, touring internationally.
(With Paul Burwell, Anne Bean, Richard Wilson)
Select Bibliography:
Things to cover in a drum lesson... Article for Artist's Catalogue: Charlotte Moth / Serralves Foundation, Porto. Time Out - April 2011. Review of solo exhibition at Southard Reid, London Review of Musik für Barbaren und Klassiker at: we-make-money-not-art.com
Vagabond Holes: David McComb and the Triffids 2009 (2 pages) ISBN 9781921361623
Nothing Moments Short Story Collection 2007 (2 illustrations) ISBN 0781934500231
Frieze - March 2008. Review of 'Noise' Modern Painters - March 2007. Review of Single-shot / Automaton.
The Times - 08/11/06 Review of Single-shot / Automaton.
‘Les Merveilles du Monde’ - Exhibition Catalogue, Musee des beaux Arts (Dunkirque)
The Wire, Issue 267, May 2006 – Review of ‘Break it Down’
STUK Book Visual Arts 2000-2005. ISBN 90-8108151-9
‘Ab Ovo’ - http://abovoproject.stevenhull.com/
‘Video Hits, Art and Music Video’ Queensland Art Gallery (Aus). ISBN 1876509856
‘To be continued >’ Artists interventions in the Public Realm. ISBN 0-7134-8794-1
‘We Build New Sentences’ W139 Gallery, Amsterdam. ISBN 90 75387 03 02
‘Art Pop City’ (Bureau Friedrich, Berlin) ISBN 3-934823-02-05
Art and Text, Oct-Nov 2001. Review of Song Poems.
Song Poems, Catalogue 2001. Produced by Steven Hull. ISBN: 0-9670913-1-4
No FuN without U: The Art of Factual Nonsense (1 photo) ISBN: 18899858806
Frieze, Issue 51, March 2000. Review of ‘to be continued’ (1 reproduction).
Scotland on Sunday, 20th Feb 2000. of Review of Become like Me.
Metronom, 1998 - 1999. Catalogue for Fundacio Raphael Tous.
E S Magazine, 6th Aug ‘99. Cover article on art Bands - Dick Donkeys Dawn
Architect’s Journal, 15th Oct. 1998. Review of ‘SITE’ exhibition. Frieze Magazine march - April .98 (issue 39) ‘Review of ‘No Room in Hell’
Time Out. Nov 26 - Dec 3 1997. Review of ‘No Room in Hell’
Time Out Nov. 1996 - Review of Rational Behaviour
Art Monthly, June 1996. Review of ‘I Beg To Differ’
Time Out, July 1995. Review of ‘Lost Property’
‘ZAPP’ Video Magazine, Nov. 1994 - Amsterdam.
Lecturing since 1995: Central St Martins College of Art and Design, London, UK
Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, UK
University of Brighton, UK.
Goldsmiths College London, UK
National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland
Academy of Fine Arts Oslo, Norway
