Sean McDowell (b. 1997) was born in Erlangen, Germany to parents of Irish and South African heritage. He immigrated to Australia in 2004, where he has since resided in Melbourne. In 2018, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Sculpture & Spatial Practice) from TheVictorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne, followed by a Bachelor of Fine Art (First Class Honours) in 2020 from the same institution. McDowell was selected as one of seven artists for the 2023 Billilla Studio Residency Program through the Bayside City Council, and has been the recipient of grants, including a Fringe Fund Ralph McClean Microgrant (2023), Kingston Arts Grant (2020), a City of Melbourne COVID-19 Arts Grant(2020) and a City of Yarra Small Projects Grant (2022). In 2018, he was the recipient of the Perrin Sculpture Foundry Award, and has been a finalist in numerous prizes, including The Mary and Lou Senini Student Art Award, McClelland Gallery & Sculpture Park (2017), The Footscray Tertiary Art Prize (2017), and The Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Fellowship (2019) at The Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery.
Selected solo exhibitions include Backdown to Earth, @14 Langridge (2023), Bruise, Castlemaine Contemporary Art Space (2023), Organisms, Five Walls (2022),In the day I dream of faraway places, Kingston Arts Centre (2021) The Staging of Actions Past, St. Francis (2019) and Cuprum, Cuprum, Kings Artist Run (2019). His work has been included in group exhibitions including Refuge, workshop, stage, site: Billilla Artist Studios 2023-23, Bayside Gallery (2023), Lifeforms, Lennox St. Gallery (2023), Shifting Forces, CAVES (2022), From Heart & Mind, The Dax Centre (2020), Extended Gestures Extended, Five Walls (2019) and Group Conversations: Australia’s Shame, George Paton Gallery (2017). His work is held public, private and corporate collections throughout Australia, and internationally in USA, Singapore, Germany and The Netherlands.