About Ric Bower and Supercharger—blown collective
Portrait of the Artist, oil on board, 2005
Ric Bower had been asked to leave a number of educational establishments by the time he was 17. He found sustained concentration challenging and school boring. At the age of 18 the Bower’s Father bought him a one way bus ticket to Southern Spain in an attempt to liberate him from a smorgasbord of narcotics dependencies. Bower walked across Spain to Gibraltar with no money. At the peak of his dishevelence he prayed to God that he would be given ‘something to give’. Two days later he began painting on the pavements of Gibraltar for money. Upon his return to the UK he hitchhiked around art colleges; Sunderland Polytechnic accepted him so he did a foundation course there.
Bower went on to study painting at Manchester Met, where there was a strong house style at the time. The post-skill approach, espoused by the then establishment, did not sit happily alongside Bower’s obsession with academic drawing. The late Malcolm ‘Mac’ Macloed mentored him in his final year at Manchester; Mac had studied with Ewan Euglow and had been taught by William Coldstream. He instructed Bower to spend the year in the Pathology Museum of Manchester University studying anatomy and attending post mortems, which he did.
Upon graduating Bower lived as a traveller with his wife Share and their young children. He had a studio in the back of a removals lorry and painted commissioned portraits and still lifes in the 17th century Dutch style.
In 2003 Bower enrolled at Carmarthen art college to study photography where he was mentored by the then White Cube represented artist Clare Richardson. One of his degree show works was selected as a finalist for the Schweppes Photographic Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery London. In the same year he won the AXA Photographic Portrait Commission.
Bower’s practice became oriented towards forming and working ‘within community’ in 2007 when he set up and edited a fashion, art and literature magazine called Blown. Blown consisted of a team of 15 creatives and was the first publication of its kind from Wales to be distributed internationally. When Blown came to a natural conclusion in 2010 he set up, ran and wrote for CCQ with the critic and cultural producer Emma Geliot and the artist Rhiannon Lowe. CCQ was dedicated to long form conversations and collaborations with contemporary artists in print. CCQ worked closely with many institutions and artists in the Middle East and on the continent of Africa.
Bower has worked as a visiting lecturer on Fashion, Fine Art and Photography courses at various institutions between 2006 and 2022.
Bower’s practice is now exclusively collaborative. In recognition of this fact he formed Supercharger-blown collective in 2018 as a convenient vehicle for his shared projects. Supercharger-blown collective is a group of highly collaborative artists, scientists and thinkers from a range of cultural backgrounds. Formed and led by Bower. Their knowingly complex, multi-disciplinary practice often assumes the appearance of an elaborate practical joke. The collective’s influences include the magical-realism of Murakami and Bulgakov, the satirical illustrator Heath Robinson and the 19th century history painter Thomas Cole. Bower says of Supercharger—blown collective’s approach: ‘...we do not want to make work that sits quietly, meekly waiting to be observed. We mean to make madness that follows you out of the gallery space, slithers into the back seat behind you and shanks you as you drive home.’
Bower/Supercharger have been mentored by (and worked closely with on a number of projects) the Angolan artist Nástio Mosquito and his wife, the Belgian artist, Kelly Schacht since 2016.
Bower’s practice has increasingly been influenced by a sense of outrage at the way people seeking refuge in the UK are treated. He volunteers for, and Supercharger-blown collective is partnered with, the refugee and asylum seeker charity Oasis Cardiff. Supercharger-blown collective’s project Easy Asylum ‘Bundu Edition’, a project that expresses this sense of outrage, was shortlisted for Rencontres Internationale Paris/Berlin in 2023.
Supercharger-blown collective’s recent collaborations have included the creation of a virtual environment using Unreal Engine and was partnered with 25 galleries, art centres, artists and DJs: Aomame presents Doing Time; Easy Asylum ‘Bundu Edition’ which employs drones, precision engineering, 3D printing and robotic tattooing; a short film called Influence created in collaboration with Nástio Mosquito and shown at SpielArt Munich in 2021 and a current collaboration with Nástio Mosquito: Vaginocracy ST which involves the development of an arduino controlled wearable sex toy. In 2024 he has also worked on a VR project with the artist and composer John Rea called Carchardai, which was shown at Bocs, the Wales Millenium Centre’s VR centre.
Bower is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Wales Trinity St David. He lives and works in Cardiff, Wales.
CV
2024 Honorary Research Fellow, University of Wales Trinity Saint David
2023 Easy Asylum Booth 'Bundu Edition' shortlisted for Rencontres Internationale Paris/Berlin
2023 Editing, Colour Grading and drone footage for Amleddau, a film by John Rea
2022 Clwstwr research grants working with Rhiannon Lowe
Using Unreal Engine to make an Aomame.Space called Doing Time featuring Godfried Donkor; Sluice; QUAD; Chapter; Yetu Gallery, Nástio Mosquito; Mark Blazel; D-Unit; The Aprognostic Temple; Marko Mäettamm; Sissy Boy Tears; Mastertronic; The Lovely Phoenix; Drunken Miss Orderly; Paper Gallery; SHIFT; Elisabetta Antonucci; Andre de Jong and Stuart Bowditch.
2022 collaboration with Elisabeth Efua Sutherland and Paa Joe published in African Artists 1882-Now, Phaidon Press,
2021 Supercharger — blown collective & Nástio Mosquito, Batotastas, Influence movie, Spielart Munich
2020 Arts Council Wales support for the project Easy Asylum Booth ‘Bundu Edition’;
2020 Freelance art consultant for Axisweb and University of Wales Trinity St David
2019, Rituals of Becoming, project collaboration, publication and exhibition, crazinisT artisT (Va-Bene Elikem K. Fiatsi) in collaboration with Ric Bower, Front/Back, Accra, Ghana
2019, The Reverse-Panopticon, a brief introduction to AEI (Aesthetically Enhanced Interrogation); Ric Bower, Nástio Mosquito & Kelly Schacht, with special guests: Tom Clulee, Rhiannon Lowe & Steve Chivalry; ArcadeCampfa, Cardiff
2018, Rituals of Becoming, project collaboration, publication and exhibition, crazinisT artisT (Va-Bene Elikem K. Fiatsi) in collaboration with Ric Bower, Gallery 1957, Accra, Ghana
2018, 8+1, as part of Foto-Szene Festival, group exhibition, Paul Avis and Ric Bower, Cologne, Germany, A Troll’s Breakfast
2018, In Vodka Veritas, conversation and publication, including James Beckett, Marco Montiel-Soto, Stine Marie Jacobsen, Taus Makhacheva, Teemu Korpela, Petri Saarikko and Sasha Huber, curated by Katerina Gregos, RIBOCA1, Riga Biennial 2018, CCQ Magazine
2018, Akɛ yaaa heko || One does not take it anywhere, project collaboration and publication, Elisabeth Efua Sutherland and Ric Bower, CCQ Magazine and Gallery 1957, Accra Ghana
2018, Catherine my Captain, project collaboration and publication, Megan Broadmeadow, Emily Watkins, Ric Bower; and CCQ magazine, CCQ Magazine
2017, The Shype of Foles (of the Worlde)® project collaboration, performance and publication, Kelly Schacht and Ric Bower, in conjunction with The Raft - Art is (not) Lonely, curated by Jan Fabre and Joanna De Vos at Mu.ZEE, Oostende, Belgium
2017, Summer of Love, conversation and publication, including Johan Grimonprez, Katerina Gregos, Mikhail Karikis, Marge Monko, Uriel Orlow and Marko Mäetamm, Schwarz Foundation, Samos, CCQ Magazine
2017, All Trolled Out, project collaboration and publication, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Ric Bower, Paul Avis and CCQ; CCQ magazine
2017, Sleeping Pill Action II, Venice, project collaboration and publication, Jan Fabre and Ric Bower, CCQ Magazine
2016, Another Leader / Transitory Suppository: Act #I Security Research, project collaboration and publication, Nástio Mosquito and Ric Bower with CCQ Magazine and Another Africa, commissioned by Emdash Foundation
2016, Bowers & Bower Audio Visual Systems, project collaboration and exhibition, Richard Bowers and Ric Bower, Arcade Space, Cardiff
2016, Opening Up, conversation and publication, including Katerina Gregos, Artists Club Coffre Fort, Nathalie Hartje, James Becket, Maryam Jafri, Olive Martin & Patrick Bernier, Art Brussels Projects, CCQ Magazine
2013-2018, Co-Editor and co-founder of CCQ Magazine
2011, Portraits of Presiding Officers Rosemary Butler and Lord Dafydd Ellis Thomas, The Senedd, commissioned by Welsh Assembly Government
2010, group exhibition, Tactile Bosch, Cardiff, As I Walked Out
2009, Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, London, group exhibition, Blingers
2008-2013, Founder and Editor of Blown magazine
2008, Arts Council of Wales publishing grant
2008-2012, Commissioning panel for National Photographic Portrait Commission with Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales and National Portrait Gallery, London
2007, Arts Council of Wales research grant
2007, Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, group exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London, Portrait of Sarah Waters
2006, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, group show, Prayer
2005, Schweppes Photographic Portrait Award, finalist, group exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London, Prayer
2005, Winner of AXA Photographic Portrait Competition, National Portrait Gallery, London and Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales
2005, Canon Fashion Portrait Award, shortlisted
2000, Art West, award, group exhibition,Self-Portrait, (oil on board)
Education
2017. Post-Graduate Certificate in Research Studies, Cardiff Metropolitan University
2005, 1st Class Honours degree in Photography, West Wales School of the Arts
1991, Degree in Fine Art, Manchester Metropolitan University