Jeff Lowe
Jeff Lowe was born in Lancashire in 1952 and studied at Leicester College of Art (1970-72) and St. Martin's School of Art (1971-75). His awards include the Sainsbury Award (1975), Greater London Arts Award (1976) and the Pollock-Krasner Award, New York (1993). He was artist in residence at Mermer Stone Quarry, Yugoslavia, in 1976 and at Praham College, Melbourne, in 1977.
Lowe's first one-man show was held at the Leicester Galleries, London, in 1974, since when he has exhibited regularly in London and frequently in Portugal in solo and group shows. His work has featured in exhibitions in France, Germany, Holland, Australia, Canada and the United States, and is in public and corporate collections, including those of Leicester Education Authority, North West Arts, Arts Council, Contemporary Art Society, Government Art Collection, Channel 4 Television, the Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow, and the National Gallery of Australia.
The artist wrote the following text about his aims for making sculpture over the past three years:
First and foremost to be a maker.
To have a dialogue with the object and materials.
To respond to what my eyes see and not what my head is telling me I am seeing, reacting to the reality in front of me.
Knowing also when to look away and let the object take over.
Benefit from anything going... a mistake can be an opportunity.
The recognition that accident can be a positive ingredient.
Repeat over and over if there is still something to learn... the unfamiliar often lies close to the familiar.
Move if something gets too recognisable.
Take risks.
Be specific.
Limit to get the most.
Don't lose a sense of the whole.
Make some thing.
Jeff Lowe's sculptures are a result of his eternal quest for form - they may appear as monuments, and indeed his concepts are monumental. Even his small sculptures, like the pyramids of ancient Egypt, are poetic structures for contemplation.
