Michael Rowe

Area

School of Arts & Humanities

Role

Senior Tutor
- Jewellery & Metal
- soah@rca.ac.uk

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Michael Rowe has been teaching at the Royal College of Art since 1978, first as a Visiting Lecturer and then as Tutor in 1980; from 1984 he has been Senior Tutor in Jewellery & Metal. In 1987 he was made a Fellow. Regarded as a leading figure in contemporary studio metal, Rowe was one of a small group of RCA graduates in the early 1970s whose radical approach laid the foundations for an expanded practice in the crafts. His influence has disseminated through exhibiting internationally in Europe, America, Australia and the Far East, and travelling extensively to lecture and participate in international symposia, workshops and conferences. Rowe set up studio in south London in 1972 and is represented by Gallery S O, London and Solothun. www.galleryso.com.

Biography
Michael Rowe was born in 1948 and studied at High Wycombe College of Technology and Art and the Royal College of Art. He was a visiting lecturer at Camberwell College of Arts from 1976 to 1982 and at Buckinghamshire College of Higher Education from 1973 to 1984.
Solo exhibitions include Michael Rowe: Objects in Metal, Crafts Council Gallery, London, 1978; Michael Rowe: Retrospective, Museem het Princessehof, Leeuwarden, Netherlands, 1988; Conditions for Ornament, Contemporary Applied Arts, London, 1988; and The Eloquent Vessel: Bunck/Foster/Rowe, Museum fur Angewandte Kunst, Koln, Germany. A major retrospective Michael Rowe was presented at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in 2003-4, touring to Manchester Art Gallery, The City Gallery, Leicester and Aberdeen Art Gallery.

In 2002 he was awarded the Golden Ring of Honour by the Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst in Germany, the first Briton to receive this award, widely regarded as the highest honour in the world of gold and silversmithing art.

Rowe is the recipient of two honorary doctorates: Buckinghamshire New University, 2004 and Hasselt University, Limburg, Belgium, 2010.

He is currently contributing to Crafts Lives, part of the National Life Stories oral history project at the British Library, London.

Michael Rowe’s work has been acquired by numerous international public collections including: Crafts Council, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery; Leeds City Art Gallery; Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums, Vestlandske Kunstindustrimuseum, Bergen; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh; Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris; Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, London; Nordenfjeldske; Kunstindustrimuseum, Trondheim; Museum of Applied Arts, Turin; The Millennium Galleries, Sheffield; Manchester Art Gallery; MIMA, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art; 21^st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Die Neue Sammlung, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich. National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo.
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Practice
Commissions 2006+
MIMA: permanent installation for the new Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, 2006

The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths: silver jug for the Permanent Collection, 2006

Crafts Council, London: SUBJECTivity/OBJECThood 3, a multi-part silver work for the permanent collection, 2007. This work looks at the notion of commissioning craft objects for collections, treating the outcome as an intervention rather than a simple addition to the collection.

New College, Oxford: silver bowl for the permanent collection, 2010

Cornwall Heartlands, UNESCO World Heritage Site: permanent installation ‘Mineral Wall’, 2011, This artwork takes as its subject the 4,000 year old history of tin mining in Cornwall. The commission was part of an extensive social and cultural regeneration programme in Cornwall. The Heartlands project was unique in receiving Big Lottery ‘Living Landmarks’ funding with additional funding from Convergence and European Regional and Social Development Funds.

Current research into casting metal attracted funding from the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation to sponsor research. With Hans Stofer, J&M Head of Programme, Rowe travelled to Japan to research the ancient craft of cast iron ‘tetsubin’ tea kettle production, 2017.

Selected exhibitions 2008+

De Main á Main. MUDAC – Museum of Contemporary Art, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2008, catalogue. Exhibition documenting the international influential of significant teachers in the field of contemporary jewellery and metal

Raising the Bar – influential voices in metal. Dovecot, Edinburgh. Ruthin Craft Centre Gallery and touring to MIMA Middlesbrough. 2008/9, catalogue

Age of Experience. Ruthin Craft Centre Gallery, Ruthin and touring to Dovecot, Edinburgh and Harley Gallery, Nottingham. 2009, catalogue

Three by One. Selections from Crafts Council, Crafts Study Centre & British Council’s Collections of Post World War Two Crafts. Crafts Study Centre. Farnham. 2009, catalogue

Collect 2009 represented by Galerie SO. Saatchi Gallery, London. 2009, catalogue

Talking Hands – International spectrum of Contemporary Metalwork. Museum of Art at Seoul National University. 2009, catalogue

Still Life. Galerie Sofie Lachaert. Tielrode, Belgium, 2009

Multiples. Gallery S O, London and Galerie S O. Solothurn, Switzerland. Rowe showed a new multiple 10 Standard Cornfields, 2011

SOFA New York, represented by Gallery S O, 2011

Mindful of Silver. Goldsmiths Hall. London, 2011. Rowe showed a new installation work Wry Vita, 2010

40:40. Forty Objects for Forty Years. Crafts Council 40^th Anniversary on-view online exhibition, 2011

Collect 2012, Saatchi Gallery London, represented by Gallery S O, London, 2012

The Perfect Place to Grow: 175 Years of the Royal College of Art. Royal College of Art, London. 2012

Design Days Dubai, represented by Gallery S O/Crafts Council, 2013

Collect 2013, Saatchi Gallery, represented by Gallery S O, London, 2013

Sconfinamenti/Digressions: contemporary jewellery and sculpture. Piano Nobile dello Stabilimento Pedrocchi, Padova. 2013, catalogue

The Silversmith’s Art, Made in Britain Today. Goldsmiths Company. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2015, catalogue

The First Decade Project : Crafts Council Collection 1972 - 82. On-line exhibition, Crafts Council, London [collections.craftscouncil.org.uk/first-decade ] 2015

ArtGenève, Salon d’Art. Geneva. Represented by Gallery S O, 2016

Masterpieces of British Silver: Highlights from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Liang Yi Museum, Hong Kong, 2016, catalogue

Silver : Light and Shade. The Holburne Museum, Bath, 2016, catalogue
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Publications, exhibitions and other outcomes
Michael Rowe. Martina Margetts and Richard Hill, Lund Humphries, London, 2003. This monograph was published to accompany the retrospective exhibition Michael Rowe presented at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and touring in 2003-4.
Coloration et Patine des Métaux. Éditions Vial. 2014. French translation [abridged] of The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals. Research into the colouring and patination of metals carried out at Camberwell College of Art with Richard Hughes from 1979 to 1982 led to the publication of the book The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals in 1982 by the Crafts Council. Re-issued in 1991 by Thames and Hudson, London, and the Whitney Library of Design, Watson Guptil, New York. This book is still in print and recognised as the standard work on the subject.

Selected publications referencing Rowe’s work 2008+

Raising the Bar: influential voices in metal. Catalogue essay by Eric Turner, Curator of Metalwork at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2008

Contemporary Crafts. Imogen Racz, Berg, Oxford and New York, 2009

The Perfect Place to Grow: 175 Years of the Royal College of Art. Glenn Adamson, Paul Thompson, Fiona McCarthy etc. Royal College of Art, London, 2012

Craft Research. volume 4 number 2: What goes around comes around ? Craft revival, the 1970s and today. Andrea Peach, 2013

Digressions and Variations on a Theme. catalogue essay by Alessia Castellani for the exhibition Sconfinamenti/Digressions: contemporary jewellery and sculpture. Piano Nobile dello Stabilimento Pedrocchi, Padova, 2013

Michael Rowe. Chapter in Seeing Things, Collected Writing on Art, Craft and Design. Alison Britton. Occasional Papers. London, 2014

Designer British Silver. John Andrew and Derek Styles. Antique Collectors Club, London, 2015

The Collection. 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. New edition. Kanazawa, Japan, 2015

Quo Vadis Silver Art ?. Chapter focussing on work by Michael Rowe in the collection of Die Neue Sammlung, by Corinna Rösner, Chief Curator and Deputy Director, Die Neue Sammlung, International Design Museum, Munich. In Zilver Kunst in Nederland. Sandra van Berkum. Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Waanders Uitgevers, Zwolle, 2016

Contemporary Silver in the British National Collection. Catalogue essay by Eric Turner, Curator, Victoria & Albert Museum for the exhibition Masterpieces of British Silver: Highlights from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Liang Yi Museum, Hong Kong, 2016

Virtual Gallery of Contemporary Fine Metalwork. Ken Quickenden. online text 2007, second edition due for publication 2017
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Research students
Julia Neill, Julia Neill

Behind Glass 1, Michael Rowe 2010
silver, acrylic, MDF showcase
Photographer: Michael Rowe

Behind Glass 1, Michael Rowe 2010
silver, acrylic, MDF showcase
Photographer: Michael Rowe
Mineral Wall. Commission for a permanent wall installation, Cornwall Heartlands World Heritage Site, Michael Rowe 2012
Photographer: Michael Rowe

Mineral Wall. Commission for a permanent wall installation, Cornwall Heartlands World Heritage Site, Michael Rowe 2012
Photographer: Michael Rowe
Pre-Genus 9, Michael Rowe 2008
silver, aluminium, pencil line on wall
Photographer: Michael Rowe

Pre-Genus 9, Michael Rowe 2008
silver, aluminium, pencil line on wall
Photographer: Michael Rowe
SUBJECTivity/OBJECThood 1. Installation at the National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon, Michael Rowe 2005
silver
Photographer: C. B. Aragao

SUBJECTivity/OBJECThood 1. Installation at the National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon, Michael Rowe 2005
silver
Photographer: C. B. Aragao
SUBJECTivity/OBJECThood 2. Commission for a permanent installation at MIMA, Middlesbrough, Michael Rowe 2006
aluminium, fibre optics
Photographer: Gilmar Ribeiro

SUBJECTivity/OBJECThood 2. Commission for a permanent installation at MIMA, Middlesbrough, Michael Rowe 2006
aluminium, fibre optics
Photographer: Gilmar Ribeiro
SUBJECTivity/OBJECThood 3. Commission for the permanent collection of the Crafts Council, London, Michael Rowe 2007
silver, aluminium, copper
Photographer: Michael Rowe

SUBJECTivity/OBJECThood 3. Commission for the permanent collection of the Crafts Council, London, Michael Rowe 2007
silver, aluminium, copper
Photographer: Michael Rowe
Wry Vita. Installed at Collect 2012, Saatchi Gallery, London, Michael Rowe 2010
mixed media
Photographer: Michael Rowe

Wry Vita. Installed at Collect 2012, Saatchi Gallery, London, Michael Rowe 2010
mixed media
Photographer: Michael Rowe

Research interests

Objects are seen as evolving, conceptually and spatially, in a viewer/context continuum. The work explores the morphology of generic silver and metalwork forms, particularly containers, whose geometries - cube, sphere, cylinder, cone, ellipse etc. are opened up and seen contextually in relation to the geometry of interiors, the space of architecture. The working process celebrates the fact that two kinds of geometry operate in the human mind; the logical, abstract space of Cartesian geometry and the experiential 'geometry' of space perception and visual orientation, the emotive space of the viewing subject. Michael Rowe is interested in exploring ways in which form-giving is achieved in the tension between these two polarities and the relation they have to the invasion of other kinds of thematic material.