Mark Howson b. 1961
His work is highly regarded for it’s meditative, cubist style, which developed from vigourous expressionism into avant-garde abstraction. Popular representations include simple, textural forms in carefully balanced, bright compositions.
Mark Howson was born in Staffordshire, England and arrived Australia in 1969. He was a founding member of Roar Studios – one of Melbourne’s earliest (fiercest) artist-run-initiatives. Howson’s art practise encompasses drawing, painting and sculpture. His work is highly regarded for it’s meditative, cubist style, which developed from vigourous expressionism into avant-garde abstraction. Popular representations include simple, textural forms in carefully balanced, bright compositions.
Mark studied Art and Design at Prahran College and Painting at the Victorian College of the Arts. He was a founding member of Roar Studios – one of Melbourne’s first Artist-run gallery and studio spaces, which opened in Fitzroy in 1982. Since then Mark has held solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and has been represented in numerous group exhibitions around Australia as well as Tokyo.
His work is held in the collections of the Australian National Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, Geelong Art Gallery, Ballarat Art Gallery, New Parliament House Canberra, Art Bank, Monash University and numerous private collections in Australia, Europe, USA and Japan.
He lives and works on a small farm near Kyneton, Victoria, and his work is informed by the surrounding landscape.
Mark Howson (born 1961, Staffordshire, UK; arrived in Australia 1969)
Painter and sculptor, Mark Howson has held regular solo exhibitions since the 1980s
in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane.
Mark Howson (born 1961, Staffordshire, UK; arrived in Australia 1969)
Painter and sculptor, Mark Howson has held regular solo exhibitions since the 1980s
in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane.
An integral part of the ROAR Studios, the artist participated in the ROAR Studios
group exhibitions throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and his works were included in
the group’s survey exhibitions in ROAR Studios at Heide MoMA (1992 and touring to
Shepparton, Benalla, and Ballarat galleries) and ROAR Again (Metro Gallery, 2001).
Howson’s works were also included in important curated exhibitions, including A
New Generation (NGA, 1988), Mix Tape: Works from the 1980s (NGV, 2013).
The artist was a finalist in numerous prestigious art awards and prizes, including The
Blake Prize for Religious Art (1993, touring nationally); Nillumbik Art Award (1997);
Len Fox Painting Award (2016, 2019, Castlemaine Art Museum); and Salon des
Refuses (2017-2019, SH Irwin Gallery).
He is referenced in the McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art and included in
such seminal publications as Roar Studios (Shepparton Art Museum, exhibition
catalogue, 1992); New Art Eight: Profiles in Contemporary Australian Art (Neville
Drury, Craftsman House, 1993); ROAR (Traudi Allen, Craftsman House, 1994); and
ROAR Reviewed: 30 Years On (Denise Morgan, McMillan, 2011).
Howson’s works reside in the collections of National Gallery of Australia, National
Gallery of Victoria, Artbank, Parliament House (Canberra), regional galleries of
Geelong and Ballarat, tertiary collections of Monash and Launceston, and corporate
and private collections in Australia and abroad.