Gary Bowling

is a painter who works primarily with oils.  Most of his work explores landscape.

He lives with his wife, Linda, in Lamar, Missouri, a small town in western Missouri near the Kansas border.  After highschool, Gary intended to pursue a degree in architectural engineering, but soon found studies in the visual arts to be more interesting.  After earning a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Arkansas in 1974, he joined the University painting and drawing faculty for a short time before accepting a teaching position at Westmar College in LeMars, Iowa where he was Chairman of the Art Department for eight years.

Bowling’s MFA is in painting and drawing; however, his graduate research investigated conceptual art and mechanisms that connect art with a viewer’s experience.  His artistic interests evolved while he was teaching at Westmar College toward paintings that explored of light and atmosphere and ideas associated with the landscape.

In 1981, Gary was invited to work as a guest artist at Yaddo, a retreat for artists and writers in Saratoga Springs, New York.  That experience was a life altering and helped clarify his interests in landscape painting.  He quit teaching in 1983 to focus his attention on painting full time.

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EDUCATION:

Master of Fine Arts in painting and drawing, MFA thesis Participatory  Devices in Art, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 1974

B.S. in Art Education, Missouri Southern State College, Joplin, Missouri, 1970

SIGNIFICANT PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES:

Keynote speaker – 4th Annual Ozarks Conference – Self Employment in the Arts, Drury University, Springfield, Missouri, April 2, 2011

Artist in Residence at Buena Vista University, Storm Lake, Iowa, February 1997

Guest Artist and Workshop Leader for the New Masters Annual at the Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, West Virginia, March 1992

Yaddo fellowship, Painting residence at Yaddo, Saratoga Springs,  New York,  Fall 1981

Chairman, Department of Art, Westmar College, LeMars, Iowa, Spring 1975 through  Spring 1983

Lecturer on current trends in art as part of the Legacy of Modernism series  sponsored by the Iowa Humanities Board and the National Endowment for the  Humanities, Spring 1981

Instructor of Painting and Life Drawing at the University of Arkansas,  Fayetteville, 1974

Free-lance architectural rendering, 1974 and 1975

Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Arkansas, Fall 1972 through  spring 1974

Art instructor for the USD 446 Schools in Independence, Kansas, 1970-1972

PUBLICATIONS Include:

Chris Miller, Review:  Gary Bowling / Gallery KH,  New City Art, May 10, 2010

New American Paintings Anniversary Edition, The Open Studios Press, 2010

Lela Gilbert and Ellen Bak,  Lit by the Sun, copyright 2001, published by Carpe Diem Books, Portland, Oregon

New American Paintings, The Open Studios Press, August 1997

Profile of Gary Bowling, Painter of the Highway, video interview for People of the Ozarks, by Kent Boyd, KYTV-NBC

Listed in Who’s Who in American Art beginning with the 18th edition

Arthur, John, Midwestern Romanticism, exhibition catalog, copyright 1986, Springfield, IL Art Association

Mutel, C.F., Swander, M., and Pohlman, L.L., Land of the Fragile Giants: Landscapes, Environments, and Peoples of the Loess Hills, exhibition catalog, published for the Brunnier Art Museum at Iowa State University by the University of Iowa Press

Stegmaier, Mark, “Gary Bowling”, American Artist Magazine, May 1988

Of Vapor and Denser Surfaces exhibition catalog, copyright 1987, John R. and  Eleanor R. Mitchell Foundation, Mitchell Museum, Mt. Vernon, Illinois

Couper, John, “A  Sense of Place”, In…Joplin Magazine, October 1986

Air, Earth, and In-Between exhibition catalogue, copyright 1983, Sioux City Art  Center, Sioux City, Iowa

New Art Examiner,  June 1983 and December 1984

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COLLECTIONS – public and corporate include:

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EXHIBITIONS Include:

Bowling – Brown – Kimball At Leopold Gallery, Leopold Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri – April 19, 2024 – June 2024

 Winter Mix, MA Doran Gallery, Tulsa, Oklahoma – February 9, 2024 -March 2024

Olson-Larsen Grand Reopening Celebration / Annual Landscape Show, Olson-Larsen Gallery, West Des Moines, Iowa – June 16, 2023 – July 2023

 50th Anniversary Series – Past , Groveland Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota – May 6 – June 3, 2023

 115 Miles East, The University of Arkansas School of Art Faculty and Alumni Exhibition, MA Doran Gallery, Tulsa, Oklahoma – April 13, 2023 – May 2023

 Art In Embassies Exhibition, Chief of Missions Residency, US State Department, Mbabane, Eswatini, Africa – 2021-2023

 Timeless, Olson-Larsen exhibition at Jordan House Museum, Des Moines, Iowa – August 26, 2022 – September 30, 2022

 Passing Time – Gary and Linda Bowling, LeMars Arts Center, LeMars, Iowa – September 14, 2021 – November 2021

 Compelling Ground, Brunnier Art Museum, Ames, Iowa – January 25 – July 23, 2021

 Art In Embassies Exhibition, American Embassy, US State Department, Ankara, Turkey  – 2019-2022

Briar Clif Review – Art, Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, Iowa – April 23 – July 12, 2020

Art In Embassies Exhibition, American Embassy, US State Department, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia  – 2018-2022

Darral Dishman – The Artist As Mentor, Spiva Art Center, Joplin, Missouri May 31 – July 20, 2019

 Naturally, exhibit of Olson-Larsen Gallery artists at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, Des Moines, Iowa – April 18, 2019 – June 2019

Olson-Larsen Gallery: 1979-2019 – 40th Anniversary Exhibition, Olson Larsen Gallery, West Des Moines, Iowa – April 12, 2019 – June 2019

Artcetera, Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, Iowa – December 15, 2018 – March 10, 2019

Sky, Land, Water: 2018 Summer Exhibitions – Sky, Groveland Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota – June – July 10, 2018

Gary Bowling and Dave Regier, Leopold Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri – April 27 – June 2018

25th Anniversary Show, Leopold Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri – September 30, 2016 – December 2016

Gary Bowling Paintings: Sun Screens, Gallery 72, Omaha, Nebraska, April 29 – May 28, 2016

Artcetera 2016, Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, Iowa – December 2015 – May 18, 2016

From Dawn to Dusk: Paintings by Gary Bowling, Brunnier Art Museum, Ames Iowa – April 20, 2016 – July 31, 2016

Holiday: a Small Works Exhibition, MA Doran Gallery, Tulsa, Oklahoma – December 3, 2015 – January 15, 2016

Bowling – Reiger – Martinez , Leopold Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri – December 4, 2015 – February, 2016

40 – 40, 40th anniversary show for the Brunnier Art Museum, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa – September – December 2015

Introduction, Gallery 72, Omaha, NE – October 2015

Summer Salon, Groveland Art Gallery, Minneapolis, MN  — June 14 – August 30, 2015

Summer Art – 2015, Meyer East Gallery, Santa Fe, NM  —  Summer 2015

New Work, Bowling, Chiavetta, and Merkel-Hess, Olson-Larsen Gallery, West Des Moines, Iowa  —  April 10 – June 6, 2015

Annual Landscape Show,  Olson-Larsen Gallery, West Des Moines, Iowa  —  June 13 – August 14, 2014

Summer Salon, Groveland Art Gallery, Minneapolis, MN  — June – August 31, 2014

Summer Shows,  Meyer East Gallery, Santa Fe, NM  —  Summer 2014

Annual Landscape Show – 2014, Olson-Larsen Gallery, West Des Moines, Iowa – June 13 – August 16, 2014

35th Anniversary Show, Olson-Larsen Gallery, West Des Moines, Iowa  April 11 – June 7, 2014

Small Works, MA Doran Gallery, Tulsa, OK  —  December 2013

The Art of the Landscape, MA Doran Gallery, Tulsa, OK  —  November 2013

Gary Bowling: Oil Painting, Leopold Gallery, Kansas City, MO  — September – October, 2013

2013 Summer Shows, Meyer East Gallery, Santa Fe, NM  — Summer 2013

Groveland Summer Show, Groveland Gallery, June 29 – August 30, 2013

Bowling, Hornecker, Smith: New Work,  Olson-Larsen Gallery, West Des Moines, Iowa —  Februrary 15 – April 6, 2013

Gary Bowling and Chris Dahlquist: New Artists, Leopold Gallery, Kansas City, MO  —  December 2012 – January 2013

Artcetera 2013, Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, Iowa – December 2012 – April 2013

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Gary Bowling – Bio