About

Rowena in the installation Seeking the Lost Gardens of 112 Sharp St, 2023

Biography

Rowena Evans is an artist, illustrator and writer in Cooma on Ngarigo Country in southern NSW. In 2024 she completed studying a Master of Contemporary Practices in Art & Design degree at the Australian National University. 

After working as a writer and artist for some years, in recent years Rowena felt she had painted herself into an artistic corner. What had been a peripheral activity - making subtle art interventions in the bush - became increasingly important to her. In the last few years she has been changing direction to focus on environmental art and artwork emanating from it. Her practice ranges from printmaking to environmentally based installations using found and natural objects. Rowena's artwork is based on specific sites and familiar places, responding to weather, stones, plants, creatures and stories, looking beneath the surface into layers and possibilities. She hopes to bring surprise and delight to viewers. 

Rowena's qualifications include a BA in Visual Arts from Alexander Mackie CAE/City Art Institute/UNSW and Masters degree in visual arts from ANU. On graduation from the latter she received four ACT Emerging Artist Support Scheme awards. She was awarded an Australian Society of Authors illustration mentorship in 2007 for her project The Incredible Shrinking Elephant, and has three fantasy/ adventure novels for young readers with IFWG Publishing. She has exhibited prints, paintings, drawings and installations in the Snowy Mountains region, Canberra and Germany. Her commissioned works include fiction and nonfiction illustrations for publication, and paintings in private collections in Australia, the USA and in the collection of the ANU. She enjoys reading, weeding, travelling and making music (recorders, French horn and singing).

With my doppelganger, found in a work by Josefa Ntjam in Fotografiska, Stockholm 2025