This April, Flushing Town Hall will unveil a special treat for visitors young and old – Grunt! by Elliot Cowan. This solo exhibition by the award-winning visual artist presents a collection of painting, drawings, sculptures, and digital illustrations that chart 10 years of an Australian living in Queens and traveling through the Complicated States of America.
The exhibition will open on Friday, April 20 in Flushing Town Hall’s first-floor Gallery, and be on view through Sunday, May 13. Suggested donations are only $5. For Gallery hours, visit us here for more information. And Elliot also will lead a workshop at Flushing Town Hall on May 6 from 1:00 to 4:00 PM.
What can an audience expect to see/experience at your exhibition?
Although it was never my intention, my show GRUNT! has turned into a bit of a travelogue of my experiences in the US. The diversity and hustle and bustle of Queens, spending time in New England, traveling through the south and my home away from my home away from my home away from home, Philadelphia. I’m also including a number of Australian icons that should be fun for folks to discover.
Tell us about you – how you started as an artist?
I’ve always been an artist! My entire life all I ever wanted to do is draw and make things and that’s what I’ve always done. I started out reading lots of books and watching lots of cartoons and drew what I saw and kept doing it and never stopped.
Where did you grow up?
I was born in Melbourne, Australia. I lived there until I was 21 and then moved to the island of Tasmania to the south (Australia’s smallest state). I lived there for 11 years mostly directing low budget television commercials. Then I was in London for 18 months where I met my American wife and moved to Bayside, Queens, right down the road from Flushing Town Hall. I’ve been in Queens for about 10 years.
What do you hope audiences learn/discover/feel at your exhibition?
Joy! Happiness! Relief from the idea that because art is hanging on a wall it’s precious and lofty and beyond the reach of everyday people. I would also like everyone who sees my work to think “Gosh, wow. This stuff is amazing” because all artists want their work to be loved.
What does Flushing Town Hall mean to you?
If you are interested in the world and the arts, music, photography, sculpture, painting, dance, and food, then Flushing Town Hall is a distillation of all these things. What more could you ask for?
What is on the horizon for you?
At the moment I’m still lurching towards finishing everything for GRUNT! I’ve got a few more prints to make and a few more sculptures to paint. In the meantime you could go watching my independent animated feature, The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead and Roundhead, the only animated feature to be produced in Queens: https://tinyurl.com/y7ezez97
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