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All images ©LaFontsee Galleries. May not be reproduced without written permission.
LEN COWGILL • Profile
Within each of Len Cowgill’s boxes and bottles lays a tiny story that seems to speak directly to each viewer. Inside the protective walls of their vessels, Cowgills’s subjects are both contained and accessible, vulnerable and shielded. They look out from their weathered containers, frozen in moments we have all experienced. Their faces are ripe with shared emotions from forced bravery to limitless joy to empty eyed confusion. A web of text holds the expertly rendered figure drawings in place while working to explain the characters’ mental states and simultaneously deepen the mystery of their internal worlds.
Most pieces created by Cowgill are restricted in color to black, white and varying shades of gray. It is due to this limited palette, as well as the familiar nature of the containers themselves, that his work seems timeless, open and understated. It feels completely human.
Cowgilll lives and works in Northern Michigan. He has exhibited his work throughout the Midwest and has been honored with a number of awards.
LEN COWGILL • Statement
My work is about containment. I explore some facet of the human condition in a drawing and box it up or put it in a bottle. I create a stage for the drawing and invite the audience to get close, look at and touch it. The important part is that the experience is shared, that a story has been told…perhaps not the story I had in mind. My boxes and bottles contain glimpses of ordinary moments and thoughts we’ve all experienced, a bit of the joy and pain of growing up, of being human.
LEN COWGILL • Biography
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2011
Myshica Gallery, Nogoya, Japan
Tamarack Gallery, Omena, Michigan
Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan
2010
LaFontsee Gallery, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Watson MacRae Gallery, Sanibel, Florida
Jordan River Arts Council, East Jordan, Michigan
2006
Tamarack Gallery, Omena, Michigan
Water Street Gallery, Saugatuck, Michigan
2005
Fine Line Gallery, St. Charles, Illinois
Lansing Art Gallery, Lansing, Michigan
2004
Three Pines Gallery, Cross Village, Michigan
Petoskey Contemporary Arts, Petoskey, Michigan
2003
Linda Warren Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Nancy Payne Gallery, Petoskey, Michigan
Tvedten Fine Art, Harbor Springs, Michigan
Davidson Gallery, Battle Creek, Michigan
Galesburg Civic Art Center, Galesburg, Illinois
Shade Tree Gallery, Petoskey, Michigan
Petoskey Contemporary Arts, Petoskey, Michigan
Jordan River Arts Council, East Jordan, Michigan
2002
Northview Design Center, Bay Harbor, Michigan
Crooked Tree Art Center, Petoskey, Michigan
Central Michigan University Art Gallery, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
Jordan River Arts Council, East Jordan, Michigan
Crooked Tree Art Center, Petoskey, Michigan
2001
Crooked Tree Art Center, Petoskey, Michigan
Dennos Museum (Sponsor), Traverse City, Michigan
2000
Crooked Tree Art Center,Petoskey, Michigan
HONORS/AWARDS
2002
1st Place, Juried Show, Crooked Tree Art Center, Petoskey, Michigan
2001
2nd Place, Juried Show, Crooked Tree Art Center, Petoskey, Michigan
1st Place, Juried Show, Dennos Museum, Traverse City, Michigan
2000
2nd Place, Juried Show, Crooked Tree Art Center, Petoskey, Michigan
