Solo exhibition, Birgitta Bower: Wild and Wooly

June 1 – July 14, 2024

Reception for the artist Sunday, June 2, 1-3 PM

Presented by M Stark Gallery, 727 Main Street, Half Moon Bay
mstarkgallery.com | 415-407-8743 | mstarkgallery@gmail.com

Birgitta Bower is known for intricately detailed sculptural felted landscapes that capture the vibrant personality and raw beauty of the Coastside and other iconic vistas. From soaring rock formations to beloved surfing beaches, to scenes of agricultural bounty, even a lifetime resident of the San Mateo County Coast will see new aspects of the landscape in her art. Wool allows for a soaring range of color and luster more vivid than conventional painting or photography, and she maximizes this quality. Trial and error is an important element of her process, she is continually perfecting her technique. Bower has been an active exhibiting member of the Coastal Arts League since 2018, and her work has been selected for many local nonprofit juried shows.

Bower is a self-taught needle-felting artist. Trained as a doctor in Sweden, when she moved to the United States in 1998, she found her license and degree credits were not transferable and focused her attention on raising her two children. She was first introduced to felting when she received a maker kit from a friend as a present in 2008. Over the years she became fascinated by the felting, becoming an expert in every step of the process, learning to clean, prepare, and dye the wool herself, sourced personally from Bay Area sheep farms. Bower takes her medium one step further by combining sheep wool with other wool such as alpaca and adds further texture with yarns and threads. She lives and works in Half Moon Bay.

M Stark Gallery features Peninsula and Bay Area artists whose work evokes the spirit of the West Coast and is in dialogue with contemporary fine art movements.