Oct. 26—It's a collaboration years in the making.
Growing up in Santa Fe, Matthew Madison Rowe began his journey into the art world.
One of the first steps was meeting Heidi Loewen, who became his teacher and mentor.
Flash forward to today, and the pair is teaming up for "The Gold That Binds Us," which is being showcased at the Heidi Loewen Fine Art Gallery in Santa Fe.
An opening reception and demonstration takes place from 5-8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27, and from noon-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28.
"I started working with Heidi when I was 17 years old after I started to want to work with clay and someone told me to reach out to Heidi," Rowe says. "I was going to Santa Fe Prep and then had an opportunity to go to The Oxbow School in California. I was trying to figure out what to do with my senior year of high school. She let me start working for her and I rented out studio space. That was 20 years ago."
In the show, Loewen and Rowe will have three collaborative pieces.
"Heidi is doing the gold leaf," he says. "I'm doing the cracked bowls."
Rowe says there will be around 10 solo pieces representing each artist.
He recently completed a master's degree in art history and visual culture, and maintains an artistic practice at his private studio.
Loewen has run a successful fine art gallery, studio, and school near the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum for 25 years.
The pair have co-taught for many years, including a series of classes for celebrities and icons in film, music, literature, science and technology.
Their current works explore both classic and modern ceramic techniques. Their collaboration focuses on clay marbleization, gold leafing, blowtorching and the Japanese art of Kintsugi — "golden joinery" — the celebration of broken pottery by repairing with lacquer and gold.
He will also have some 2D paintings, which are unique.
"I started to attach the canvases to the pottery wheel," he says. "I was sitting there one day, and it became a new avenue for me. People like this one technique and of course, because of the wheel, it's a perfect circle. I realized at that moment that I don't always have to put just clay on the wheel. That's my great breakthrough."
Rowe begins by taping a canvas board to the pottery wheel and then covers it with as many different types of paint and colors.
"I then shape and texture the paint using pottery techniques and tools," he says. "What results is a psychedelic mess. After it dries, I begin the '100-Layers Technique,' which was derived from a style I learned from the painter Joe Novak. Here, I mix up a very light wash of white paint and apply one or two layers every day until the whole painting turns white. This usually takes 100-200 layers. I imagine the process as similar to watching the colors fade from ancient Greek sculpture — from gaudy polychrome to stark white. There is no way to rush this process—it is the extended duration of the process that gives these works significance and individuality."