Adger Cowans
b. 1936
Adger Cowans is a fine arts photographer, filmmaker, and abstract
expressionist painter now based in Bridgeport. After he received a BFA in
photography, Cowans studied the School of Motion Picture Arts and School of
Visual Arts in New York. While serving in the US Navy, he worked as a
photographer then moved to New York. He worked with Life magazine
photographer Gordon Parks and fashion photographer Henri Clarke.
In New York, Cowans was recruited by James Ray Francis to become a
founding member of Harlem based The Kamoinge Workshop, and along with
Louis Draper, would be the only members with a formal education in the arts.
Kamoinge, translating to “group effort” from the language of the Kikuyu people
of Kenya, sought to present the Black community with dignity and positivity,
which was antithetical to the stereotypical portrayal by the media. The exhibit
on the Kamoinge Workshop, organized by the Virginia Museum fofo Fine Arts
is traveling across the country and was recently at the Whitney and will on view
in Cleveland and at the Getty this spring and summer.
Renowned in the world of photography and fine art, Cowans works have been
shown by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, International Museum of
Photography, Museum of Modern Art, The Studio Museum of Harlem, The
Cleveland Museum of Art, Harvard Fine Art Museum, Detroit Art Institute,
James E. Lewis Museum, and numerous other art institutions. He is also a
recipient of a John Hay Whitney Fellowship and the Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Caesar Chavez, Rosa Parks Visiting Scholars Award from Wayne State
University.
expressionist painter now based in Bridgeport. After he received a BFA in
photography, Cowans studied the School of Motion Picture Arts and School of
Visual Arts in New York. While serving in the US Navy, he worked as a
photographer then moved to New York. He worked with Life magazine
photographer Gordon Parks and fashion photographer Henri Clarke.
In New York, Cowans was recruited by James Ray Francis to become a
founding member of Harlem based The Kamoinge Workshop, and along with
Louis Draper, would be the only members with a formal education in the arts.
Kamoinge, translating to “group effort” from the language of the Kikuyu people
of Kenya, sought to present the Black community with dignity and positivity,
which was antithetical to the stereotypical portrayal by the media. The exhibit
on the Kamoinge Workshop, organized by the Virginia Museum fofo Fine Arts
is traveling across the country and was recently at the Whitney and will on view
in Cleveland and at the Getty this spring and summer.
Renowned in the world of photography and fine art, Cowans works have been
shown by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, International Museum of
Photography, Museum of Modern Art, The Studio Museum of Harlem, The
Cleveland Museum of Art, Harvard Fine Art Museum, Detroit Art Institute,
James E. Lewis Museum, and numerous other art institutions. He is also a
recipient of a John Hay Whitney Fellowship and the Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Caesar Chavez, Rosa Parks Visiting Scholars Award from Wayne State
University.
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