Aaron Cowan is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Chattanooga, TN. He received his BFA in 3D Sculpture from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and in Fall 2019 he will join the University of Nevada in Las Vegas in pursuit of his Masters of Fine Art. His work has been featured at LIT Gallery (2017), Mineral House Media Digital Residency (2019), Frequency Arts Gallery (2017), and the Chattanooga Film Festival (2018-2019). He works primarily in the expanded field of sculpture, including video, installation, and performance. He was a founding member of the Apothecary project space in 2010; founding member and Curator of the Swine gallery; and Co-Founder and Director of ARC: Artist Residency Chattanooga, established in 2016. Cowan has been awarded the Lillian B. Feinstein Scholarship Award (2011), Best In Show at the Cress Gallery with juror Patrick DeGuira(2010), Community Cultural Connections grant from Artsbuild (2016, 2017), and a Bonnaroo Works Fund grant (2018). He has been featured in press and publications such as GRIST, Mineral House Media, the Pulse, Chattanooga Times Free Press, and TROP. His work is also part of the University of Tennessee's outdoor sculpture collection.
Cowan finds tenderness in sculpture, intimacy through performance, and empathy with video and installation. He scouts out thrift stores and junk yards, hunting for objects and materials from cultural identities of power, their environments and rituals. Reclaiming car parts, broken tools, worn-out work and sports equipment into softer expressions are actions against unsustainable constructs of masculine identity. What may appear as celebration are nuanced situations to lift the veil. The work is part seduction, part confrontation, full of excitement and anxiety, like discovering a deep secret or preparing for a rite of passage. Or shaving for the first time.
Solo Exhibitions
2017 - Reinvention, LIT Gallery, Chattanooga, TN
2017 - Blind Love, Frequency Arts, Chattanooga, TN
2017 - Laughing and Screaming, Swine Gallery, Chattanooga, TN
2013 - Fragments, Apothecary, Chattanooga, TN
Group Exhibitions
2019 - Dreamt Days Dark, Stove Works, Chattanooga, TN
2019 - Chattanooga Film Festival 2019
2018 - Frequency Arts Guild Exhibition, Chattanooga, TN
2018 - Surreal Deal Show, LIT gallery, Chattanooga, TN
2018 - Rogana Rocks Art & Music Festival, Nashville, TN
2018 - Crappy Magic, Track One, Nashville, TN
2017 - Garden Party, Gallery 2, LIT Gallery, Chattanooga, TN
2017 - Local Showcase, Barley, Chattanooga, TN
2017 - Summertime, 3rd Floor, City Hall, Chattanooga, TN
2017 - Ekphrasis, The Central Collective, Knoxville, TN
2016 - Examinations, Association For Visual Arts, Chattanooga, TN
2015 - Gallery Hop, Mercy Junction, Chattanooga, TN
2014 - Fresh, Association for the Visual Arts, Chattanooga, TN
2014 - Warnings, Boundaries, and Lies, Tanner Hill, Chattanooga, TN
2014 - LOSTNEST, Williams St. Studios, Chattanooga, TN
Education
2012 - BFA 3D Sculpture, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN
2008 - AFA, Spokane Falls Community College, Spokane, WA 2008
Awards
2017 - Featured Artist, Reinvention, LIT Gallery, Chattanooga, TN
2012 - Lillian B. Feinstein, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
2011 - Best in Show, Juried Student Exhibition, juror Patrick DeGuira, University of Chattanooga at Tennessee
Residencies, Workshops and Professional Activities
2019 - Mineral House Media online residency
2016 - Examinations project with the Hunter Museum of American Art
2016 - Co-Founder SWINE gallery & project space
2015 - Co-Founder ARC: Artist Residency Chattanooga
2013 - Easy Lemon Residency, Chattanooga, TN
2012 - Artist for SMASH ART Workshop, Creative Discovery Museum, Chattanooga, TN
2010 - Co-Founder The Apothecary, Contemporary Gallery and Project Space, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, TN
2010 - Co-Founder D&A Clothing, est. 2010, hand printed screen-printing services, Chattanooga, TN
Publications
2017 - Grist, Issue 10
2017 - Combining Art And Film Into One Unusual Space, The Pulse, June 28
2016 - Seeing Classic Art Through The Eyes Of Local Artists, The Pulse, November 2
2016 - Artist Residency Chattanooga, The Pulse, October 19
2016 - Spout Magazine, October 13
2016 - From Southside Grocery Store to New Arts Center, The Pulse, May 11,
2014 - AVA selects 'Fresh' artists, Chattanooga Times Free Press, June 19th
2013 - Trop Magazine