Ed McGowin

Ed McGowin is an American painter and sculptor based in New York City. Throughout his career, McGowin has produced works in a wide variety of media that have been installed and exhibited in galleries, museums and public spaces. He has taught at institutions such as the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, the University of Southern Mississippi, and the State University of New York system. The first major publication of his work, Name Change: One Artist - Twelve Personas - Thirty Five Years, was published by the Mobile Museum of Art in 2006 and distributed by the University Press of Mississippi.

William Edward McGowin was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in 1938. He received his B.A. at the University of Southern Mississippi and his M.A. from the University of Alabama. In 1962, McGowin moved to Washington D.C. where he served as an aid to Mississippi Democratic Rep. William M. Colmer and continued to make art. That same year, McGowin established the McGowin-Bright Art School in Alexandria, Virginia, which served as both an art school and supply shop. Shortly after, McGowin returned to the South to carry out a teaching fellowship and complete a master's degree in painting at University of Alabama. In 1976, McGowin moved to New York City where he continues to live and work.

McGowin is married to artist, curator and educator Claudia DeMonte. He lives and works in both New York City and Miami Beach, Florida. He has two children, Leah McGowin Thomas and Jill McGowin who both reside in San Antonio.

Initially trained as a painter, McGowin quickly began experimenting across media. His paintings, sculptures, conceptual art projects, films, writings, and public art installations have a southern sensibility rooted in his early experiences in Mississippi and Alabama. Consistent with his university training, McGowin's work began with an abstract focus. Within art history, his art from the mid-1960s became associated with a second generation of artists working within the archetypes of the Washington Color School. McGowin also pioneered the used of vacuum-forming to create distinct abstract forms in a variety of new materials.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2023