Kirsten Swanson Bowen’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Kirsten Swanson Bowen is a text based painter who lives and works in New York City. She was born in 1966, raised in northeast Ohio, the daughter of Eugenia Kane Swanson, (decendent of General Thomas L. Kane) and Philip Vernon Swanson (pitcher for the Cleveland Indians minor leage team, the Vadalia Indians) As a child, she was given the nickname “Korki” by her grandfather for her spunk and determination.

Upon high school graduation, she studied at Columbus College of Art and Design, and recieved a BFA in illustration. Newly married to Jonathan Bowen, the couple moved to New York City in 1989.  She worked as a carpet designer and textile designer and briefly owned her own children’s textile design company before moving back to Ohio to raise her family.  Their son Philip Jonathan Bowen was born in Manhattan (1990) and 4 years later their son Andrew Nicholas Bowen was born in Columbus, Ohio. (1994)  (After incidents of alcoholism, infidelity and emotional abuse, the couple divorced in  2006 and Kirsten has remained single.)

After working in Ohio through a New York rep doing textile design for several years, Kirsten sifted gears and worked as a faux painter and muralist from 1994-2006. As the years went by, her interest in returning to fine art grew stronger and she opened the Kirsten Bowen Gallery (in Bexley, Ohio 2004-2007) The gallery showcased emerging artists and was considered to be “possibly one of the city’s most important galleries” by the Other Paper of Columbus. Now working exclusively as painter, her dedication brought solo exhibits at the Coral Springs Museum of Art and the Evansville Museum of Art History and Science Begley Art Source. She exhibited in a 2 person show with Tom Folino at the Thousand Islands Arts Center ~ home of the hand weaving museum, and at the Farmington Museum of Art in New Mexico. Her background in carpet design, textile design and murals led to the oeuvre she is known for today. Often large in scale, her work is included in numerous corporate and private collections all over the world. Bowen participates in open studio events and group shows in Manhattan and Brooklyn. She is represented by the Bonfoey gallery in Cleveland Ohio, Grid in Columbus Ohio, Guangmi Enterprises in Shanghai China, Feldspar Gallery in Savage MD, Rumjahn Gallery in Evansville IN, and Apropos showroom in the New York Design Center. Bowen’s paintings typically incorporate poetry, lyrics and other forms of written word. The imagery varies from abstract to figurative and she has created a technique using “green” colored Venetian plaster applied impasto style and varnished to the luster of an oil.

The newest three series Bowen is creating break boundaries for presenting art outside of brick and mortar, and include when the “Cows Come Home” and “Heads in the Sand.” These works incorporate canvases used as installation at the beach and performances of cow costumed interns wearing sandwich sign paintings. This is a comment on the uncertain future of brick and mortar in the art world as the shift of online sales and marketing take the culture away from physical galleries. The mouth paintings carried by the (often crowd sourced) cow interns, have messages embedded in the imagery that impress messages of equality reflecting current and historic racial troubles, and was first brought to life after the upsetting Ferguson verdict that exhonerated police from the respondibility of Michael Brown’s death. Her belief is that she is to carry on the work of her great great great grandfather General Thomas Kane in his pursuit of racial and religious equality in the US. The series continues to express a desire for equality throughout the world concerning race, religion and gender. Her belief is that we have to do and say more to assure that the young adults of our country who are old enough to go into the world alone are prepared with the right beliefs and behaviors to bring them home safely in this uncertain world “when the Cows Come Home” Performances of this nature began spontaneously during her Coral Springs Museum exhibit, as she was nurturing and hosting her son and his best friend who was instrumental in handling the art that filled 7 galleries. Realizing that the concern for the safety of an African American male was immesurably heightened in comparison to her own sons, she believed it was time to act. The performances have continued in New York, Ohio, and New Jersey and images are featured in blogs and posts including the Bushwick Artists facebook cover image. 

 She truly believes that writing her name in the snow with yellow water is art. This ephemeral text based “tagging” protest began after her encounters (and those of other women) with territorial and predatory men, and continues in winters to reflect incidences of stalking, sexual assault and harrassment.