Tuesday Art ATTACK- Roy Dowell “Untitled (2009)”

By Christian Franzen

Roy Dowell was born in New York in the year 1949. As a toddler, Dowell's family left the east coast and settled in Southern California. He earned both his Bachelor of Fine Art from the California Institute of Arts, and then went back to receive his Masters of Fine Arts degree in 1977. It was at the California Institute of Art that he met his life partner Lari Pittman who's is also a successful artist and teacher at UCLA. 

Being a child of the 1950's, Dowell's paintings offer a certain nostalgic aura to the viewer. Dowell was always interested in the Mid-Century Modern architecture that exploded in popularity throughout his youth; its influences permeate the artists body of work. Dowell is also a big music lover leading to illusions of musical motifs of the Modern era within his work. The works Dowell creates utilize a mixed media approach; he uses all sorts of papers and scraps as well as paint to create exciting cohesive compositions.

At first Dowell showed his work at the original Los Angeles Galleries packed into La Cienega Boulevard in the earlier years of the Los Angeles artist movement. Now he is represented by the prestigious Margo Leavin Gallery located in the downtown packing district of Los Angeles. 

Currently Dowell serves as head of the Graduate Fine Arts Department at Otis College of Art and Design in addition to being a full time artists out of his West Hollywood Studio.