"My personal concerns are about containment and expansion, about cycles of growth, change and decay, and about the shifting relationship between us and the world in which we are immersed."
Liz McGowan works with natural and found materials, creating responses to particular environments through installation, sculpture, drawing and conversation.
Her focus is the meeting point between inner and outer landscapes, where personal creativity is given inspiration and form by those elements – stone, reed, tree, earth, tideline – that combine to form a landscape.
EXHIBITIONS AND RESIDENCIES
2020
A FINE BALANCE, Houghton Hall Stables, Contemporary and Country - group exhibition run alongside Anish Kapoor exhibition
Ecoartspace juried online exhibition “ecoconsciousness”
Geumgang Nature Art Biennale
2019
FESTIVAL, Houghton Hall Stables, Norfolk By Design - group exhibition run alongside Henry Moore exhibition
2018
Force of Nature – solo exhibition at Norwich Cathedral
2017
Houghton Hall Stables, Norfolk By Design group exhibition, run alongside Richard Long exhibtion
ArtDotEarth, Dartington – Duo Exhibition
Groundwork Gallery Kings Lynn – group exhibition accompanying work by Herman de Vries
2016
SHELTERING SKY at Bluejacket Workshop – , group exhibition curated by Paul Barratt and Paul Vater of Contemporary and Country
NATURE by Norfolk by Design – (now Contemporary and Country), group exhibition at Creake Abbey
For the love of – commissioned by the National Trust and the Climate Coalition to make a beach installation inspired by sea level rise.
2014 – 15
Reed installation for the Waveney Sculpture Trail
Norwich Castle Open, Inspired by Birds
2012 – 14
Artist in Residence at RSPB Minsmere
2012
Norwich Castle Open, Vision and Reality
Constellation – installation in Yarmouth Minster
2004 – 12
Bergh Apton Sculpture Trail – outdoor, site specific installations using local natural materials, workshops and demonstrations.
2010
Art of Faith – Curated exhibition at the Norwich Castle Museum
2007
Wood at Wood’s House – site specific leaf installation for King of Hearts Arts Centre, Norwich
2005
Windscape – installation exploring the movement of the wind around Salthouse church tower, grant aided by Arts Council England
2004
Eastern Open – curated exhibition at Kings Lynn Arts Centre
Sculpting Summer – lead artist for a series of temporary, linked site specific installations involving local communities in a journey down the waterways of the Southern Broads to the sea. Responsible for overall aesthetics, liaising between artists and South Norfolk Council, making my own commissioned work and feeding back to an exit conference.
2003
Crossover – Commission by Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery to make wall hangings inspired by the River Lark and run workshops for secondary school pupils and teachers. Highly commended in the 2003 Artworks Awards
2002
Paper Works – touring exhibition with Rural Arts East with sculptures, demonstrations and workshops
2000
Rockland Broad – residency at Rockland St Mary, Norfolk, making outdoor site specific environmental sculptures and facilitating the making of sculptures by the community to celebrate Rockland Broad
1999
Seachanges – duo exhibition with John Richter at Kings Lynn Arts Centre
Barrington Farm – residency and solo exhibition at centre for adults with disabilities
1996
Hebden Bridge Sculpture Trail
1995
Open Air Sculpture – installation of water sculpture at Wysing Arts, Cambridge
1993
The Shifting Form – solo exhibition at Kings Lynn Arts Centre inspired by Welney Wildfowl and Wetlands Reserve
1992
Moments of Growth – solo exhibition at the King of Hearts Arts Centre and linked site-specific sculpture at How Hill Nature Reserve.