Artwork:
Marcus Bowcott. Axe. Relief print, 1/30. 2007.
A monolithic black form rises from the shoreline like a stranded vessel or a fragment of impossible architecture, its immense curved mass absorbs light rather than reflects it. The print balances industrial severity with quiet lyricism: scaffold-like supports and a barricade of pilings anchor the structure to the earth, while the vast pale sky surrounding it amplifies its silence and scale. Subtle textures animate the surface, giving the object a skin-like presence that feels both engineered and organic, as though the structure is in the process of becoming something else entirely. Stark and cinematic, the composition evokes the uneasy poetry of human construction against an empty horizon.
Artist:
Marcus Bowcott is a Vancouver based painter, sculptor and mixed media artist who often explores relationships between natural and industrial landscapes using irony and humour. At the beginning of his career, he was primarily concerned with formal aspects of figuration and landscape painting, but the subjects of his paintings have shifted over the years to industry and mechanized recreation. They question the impact of consumption and mass transportation on society and ecology.
The automobile as garbage has been a recurring theme in Bowcott’s work. He is best known for Trans Am Totem which consists of five ruined cars stacked on an old-growth cedar tree. The installation was temporarily installed in 2015 as part of the Vancouver Biennale at the intersection of Quebec Street and Pacific Boulevard. In 2021 Trans Am Totem was taken down for maintenance and repair. The City of Vancouver plans to reinstall it at another location to be determined in the future.
Many of Bowcott’s paintings depict scenes of Fraser River log booms, seascapes and immense oceangoing vessels, enabling him to speak to his past employment as a deckhand and longshoreman, as well as to his political economic and environmental concerns.
In the late 1970s, Bowcott studied Drawing, Painting and Media at the Ontario College of Art. He later attended the Royal College of Art, graduating with a Master of Art from its School of Painting in 1984. His work is part of numerous corporate and public collections, including the Canada Council Art Bank, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Quotes:
“The automobile holds a unique position in our culture. It’s a manufactured want and symbol of extremes; practicality and luxury, necessity and waste. We can see this in the muscular Trans Am, the comfortable BMW, and the workhorse Civic. Trans Am Totem also questions the cycle of production and consumption.” Marcus Bowcott – Trans Am Totem, Vancouver Biennale, Dec 2024
“Out on the river, I was surrounded by these trees that were horizontal on the water, and you could see cars everywhere lining the river. This theme of water surfaces and the beauty of landscape and these piles of cars emerged.” Marcus Bowcott Explores the Relationship Between Nature and Industry in “Endlessly Rocking, Amanda Siebert, The Straight, Sept 4, 2015
Deep Dive:
Artist’s website.
Vancouver Biennale website.
Foundation:
The Canadian Art Preservation Foundation posts short biographies and information on artists and artwork from its collection in a not-so-subtle attempt to capture your attention and interest in our mission, but we also just want to keep this artwork in view. We are excited about the art we collect and want to share it with you.
CAPF is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the artwork of Canada’s superstar artists for future generations to examine, study and exhibit – the ones you know and the ones you might not know so well. We accept artwork, journals, notes, letters, exhibition catalogues and anything else that might comprise a visual and/or intellectual “portrait” (ahem, please pardon the pun) of a particular artist.
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