Damon Kowarsky studied printmaking at Victorian College of the Arts and Glasgow School of Art. Since graduating he has travelled extensively. Architecture and the colours of earth and sky inspire much of his work.
Kowarsky is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards including a Toyota Community Spirit Artist Travel Award, Collie Print Trust Emerging Victorian Printmakers Scholarship, and Creative Victoria and Australia Council Grants. He has worked as a scientific, courtroom, and archaeological illustrator, including assisting on a dig for the Dakhleh Oasis Project Egypt in 2002.
Kowarsky exhibits regularly in Australia and abroad, with solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Hong Kong, New York, Philadelphia, Wellington, Cairo, Damascus, Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi.
He is currently working on a series of etchings and drawings exploring the balance between the natural and man made worlds.
‘Some of these works date from before the world ended. Others were made in that brief, apocalyptic time before COVID hit Australia in March last year. A summer when the skies above Melbourne turned grey with smoke, when the smell of burning filled suburban backyards, when red dust from storms in the Mallee came down as rain and stained the cars, the streets, the footpaths.
But even before this I'd been thinking about the delicate balance between the natural and man made worlds. How our cities are somehow full of vegetation and animal life, and how little it would take for nature to reassert itself even in the hearts of our modern metropolises.
All the images are etchings, drawn by hand on copper plates and printed using equipment that has not much changed in the 500 or so years since it was invented.’
Solo Exhibition by Damon Kowarksy will run from March 1st – March 31st. Damon will be appearing at POME for an intimate artist talk on Thursday 4th of March and Thursday 25th of March.
Free entry but bookings encouraged!
