John Rowley

I am an interdisciplinary artist, primarily working with photography, film, performance and theatre based in Cardiff. In the late 80’s and throughout the 90’s I was a core performer with Brith Gof, the legendary Welsh experimental theatre company. Since then I have worked and toured extensively as a an actor/performer with National Theatre Wales, Forced Entertainment and German composer/director Heiner Goebbels. My art work is often informed by my stints as an actor and is inspired by the artifice and construction techniques employed in the production of film and theatre, especially that of the SFX (special effects) department. The work plays with humour as much as it does with horror. In August 2023 John was awarded the Gold medal for visual art at The National Eisteddfod, Wales for a selection of his ‘mask’ project photographs.

Boduan 2023

The mask series of photos was initially made for Instagram. It started out in a period when I was trying to think of ways of making ad-hoc costumes for a yet to be made theatre show inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights and rave culture! I decided to use any objects or materials that I could find in my house or garden. Nothing bought or brought in from the outside. And, as an artist, I like rules and restrictions so I decided that the ‘masks’ would have to be constructed, photographed and uploaded to Instagram within 15 minutes. As soon as the photo is taken most masks fall apart and are recycled, thrown in the bin or left in the garden to disintegrate. It wasn’t intended to be a long durational project but there are currently over 500 of these creations on Instagram.( john.rowley.17 @instagram). These prints come as a result of a collaboration with the North Wales based photographic Colab, Terraffoto who recently produced the book LUDIC, a collection of images from the ‘mask’ series.

Send me more information on John Rowley

Please fill in the fields marked with an asterisk

Name *

Email *

Phone

Message

Receive newsletters *

Yes No

Send enquiry

* denotes required fields

In order to respond to your enquiry, we will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy (available on request). You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.

Item added to cart

John Rowley

Boduan 2023

Daniel Trivedy

Emrys Williams

Iwan Bala

Shani Rhys James

Sue Williams

Tim Davies

Verity Pulford

Elfyn Lewis

Eleri Mills

Gareth Griffith

Peter Finnemore

Philip Nicol

Catrin Howell

Simon Fenoulhet

Angharad Pearce Jones

Rhian Haf

Seán Vicary

Suzie Horan

Carwyn Evans

Peter Bodenham

Laura Thomas

Brendan Stuart Burns

Ann Catrin Evans

Richard Bevan

Julia Griffiths Jones

Gareth Hugh Davies

Sean Edwards

John Rowley

Bedwyr Williams

Send me more information on John Rowley

Cookie preferences

Join our newsletter