For her latest body of work, D’Andrea Bowie invites us into a shared space-a place resembling her studio practice. Here we find ceramic clusters, photographs and drawings of the artist’s clay output shaped by liminal organic voids. Bowie is interested in the porous relationship between material and method. She writes: “Medium that retains touch and memory through various modes are employed when creating art that is instinctual and self-reflective.” Through her creative output, Bowie deploys the textures of daily life replete with the content of consciousness.

The artist currently divides her time between Toronto and rural Port Hope. Working in installation, she uses sculpture and sound to create immersive environments that engage the viewer to consider ways in which land is inhabited. As a mature student, D’Andrea completed her BFA at OCADU in Sculpture & Installation in 2017 where she was the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards.

Affordance is what an environment offers an individual. It’s a term that was coined by American psychologist, James J. Gibson in 1966. D’Andrea Bowie tests this perceptual notion and makes an important gesture towards this concept on a daily basis. The artist is succinct and sincere in summating her quotidian practice: “My explorations delve into notions of mothering and stewardship, the relationships We nurture with the land and those that inhabit it.” Her work is profoundly figurative, and yet the figure is evacuated from her work. In this solo exhibition, we find vestiges of lived experience-traces of flexed intensity and passages of astonishing delicacy.

Olex Wlasenko, Curator at Station Gallery