Stephen Bowers: Beyond bravura by Damon Moon & John Neylon

Stephen Bowers makes pottery that fires the imagination. He combines rich, modern life experiences with skills and traditions that stretch back thousands of years to create complex works full of wonder. From familiar, everyday items, to the transformative alchemy of deluxe and super deluxe bravura museum pieces, his art is acclaimed and collected across Australia and overseas.

This is the first major publication devoted to Stephen Bowers’ craft. It shows how the history of his working life as an educator, studio manager and arts administrator melded with his artistic career to produce an original and outstanding contribution to contemporary Australian ceramics. Mapping the artist’s inspirations, influences and ideas, detailing the formation and development of his practice, this book discusses his creative techniques and methods, and explains the importance of his collaborative approach to making work. Stephen Bowers: Beyond Bravura celebrates the intellect, imagination and inventiveness of an original Australian artist whose career extends already over 35 years.

Praise for Stephen Bowers ‘A long-term, in-depth account of the life and work of an artist…a beautiful book. It is excellent value. Another quality work from Wakefield Press.’ - Jill, M/C Reviews

Dr Damon Moon has worked as a writer, curator, researcher, lecturer and maker across various areas of the arts, from contemporary Asian art to the crafts. He has published extensively on the history of Australian ceramics, completing a PhD on the impact of Bernard Leach’s seminal 1940 text ‘A Potter’s Book’ on the development of the Australian crafts movement in its formative years.

John Neylon is an Adelaide-based independent author, curator and formerly Head of Education, Art Gallery of South Australia (1988–2005). He has worked as a media arts writer since the 1980s, writes for the Adelaide Review and Melbourne Review, lectures in contemporary art history and theory at Adelaide Central School of Art, and is a regular national tour lecturer for the Australian and Decorative Fine Arts Society. John Neylon has written numerous essays and books on artists including Hans Heysen, Robert Hannaford, Aldo Iacobelli and Greg Johns, and has curated several exhibitions on South Australian artists.