bio

Neil Howe was born in 1951 in Melbourne, Australia. He first studied Biology at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and was awarded a Bachelor of Applied Science Degree in 1973 with a triple major in Biochemistry, Zoology and Botany. For a number of years he was employed as a research officer at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Division of Protein Chemistry and later the Neurochemistry Department of Monash University working on Influenza and Muscular Dystrophy research projects. In 1977 Neil Howe left the world of science to study visual art and entered Prahran College of Advanced Education (now Victorian College of the Arts) to study sculpture under John Davis and David Wilson, photography under Athol Shmith and film under Paul Cox. He was awarded a Diploma of Art & Design in 1980 and won the Powell Street Gallery sculpture prize as top sculpture student of that year.

While still a student, Howe first began to exhibit painting and sculpture in various art competitions like the Corio art prize and the Tina Wentcher Sculpture Prize. Howe is also a self taught musician and owning several electronic music synthesizers was invited to join an avant garde music group called The Composers Collective with Ken Guntar, Greg Riddell, and Ash Wednesday. Bringing to the group a visual art perspective, the Composers Collective became "The Collective" and soon began to incorporate performance art into its repertoire with Neil Howe as the artistic director and Greg Riddell as the music director after Ken Guntar moved to Sydney in 1979.

From 1978 to 1981 The Collective were very actively producing and presenting new music and performance art events at many academic institutions and art galleries around Victoria. The performances by the Collective were usually live multimedia events incorporating elements of new music composition directed by Greg Riddell, performance incorporating the main members of the Collective and occasional guest performers, experimental film and early video art created by Neil Howe, with Howe directing the overall performance aesthetic. After 1982 the main members of the group, Neil Howe, music composer Greg Riddell, and poet/percussionist Ian McBryde, formed a contemporary music group called The Dance with Michael Jordan on drums, Chico Henderson on bass, Peter Fajdiga on guitar, Jill Caunter vocals, and started performing at popular pub and nightclub venues around Melbourne.

In 1982 Howe was invited to exhibit some early video art pieces, used in these performance events, at the Rosslyn Oxely 9 Gallery in Sydney and later after buying his first Amiga computer, began to create video and computer art regularly exhibiting these in video and fringe arts festivals in Australia. At about this time the Collective ceased performing but the principle members maintain the core idea of the collective and sometimes come together to work on a joint project. In the spirit of the Collective, Howe often collaborates with artist friends Kevin Mortensen and Stelarc adding the dimension of sound or video to their work.

Through the late 80's and early 90's Neil Howe worked as a video editor in broadcast television, first in news then drama and finally with a national daily current affairs program. After working all through the first Gulf War he left television and travelled extensively throughout Europe and USA. Through the 90's Howe continued to work with computers and video technology and with the development of high resolution digital cameras was able to develop the "Bodyscape" series of images first exhibited in March 2000 and sponsored by Epson.

Since 2000 Howe has regularly exhibited digital prints and video art in art galleries, museums and film festivals around the world. He is represented by several art galleries and has work in public collections in Australia, UK , India, Spain, Bavaria and Turkey. His recent work “When I Grow Up” 2010 has won a Metropolis Award at the Madrid Festival of Contemporary Audio-visual Art (MADATAC) in Spain, and multiple awards at the Blue Banana Video Festival in Landau, Bavaria. The more recent “Conspiracy” 2012 was the only international video artwork selected for inclusion in NordArt 2013, the largest exhibition of contemporary art in Europe that runs for 3 months during the summer period. Neil Howe is the author of the book Parallel Realities: The Development of Performance Art in Australia published in 2017 by Thames & Hudson, Australia and in 2018 he had two artworks selected for inclusion in the Biennale of Australian Art in the city of Ballarat.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS - NEIL HOWE- see www.neilhowe.com

1978 Mildura Sculpture Triennial, student section.

1978 Co-formed the performance art group The Collective.

1979 Performance event, "More Mediocre Melodies", Preston Performance Festival, Pitspace Gallery,

Bundoora. Australia.

1979-80 Performance events by The Collective at Melba Hall, Melbourne University, Latrobe

University, RMIT Arts Festival, RMIT Gallery, Deakin University, Geelong, Swinburne Institute

Technology, Caulfield Institute of Technology, Caf'e Theodore, Sydney, plus five commissioned outdoor

performances for the Moomba Festival, Melbourne presented in collaboration with 'Community

Celebrations'.

1979 Tina Wentcher Sculpture Exhibition, AMP Centre, Melbourne. Australia.

1980 "Prahran Sculptors", Adrian Brandt Gallery, Melbourne. Australia.

1981 First Australian Sculpture Triennial, Melbourne.

1981 Performance event "Ego is an Arty Word", Niagra Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.

1981 Performance event, "Diallage of a Documenting Doctrinaire", RMIT Performance Festival,

RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.

1981 "Untitled", sculpture exhibition, McCormack Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.

1982 Video exhibition, Rosslyn Oxely 9 Gallery, Sydney, Australia.

1983 Performance event, "Ern Malley is on the Dole – Hooroo You Beaut Country", Melbourne Fringe Arts

Festival, Australia.

1985 "Sculpture 85", group sculpture exhibition, Melbourne Exhibition Centre, Australia.

1985 Video exhibition, Melbourne Fringe Arts Festival, Australia.

1985 Solo painting exhibition, Mills Street Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.

1985 Mornington Peninsula Sculpture Prize, Mornington Art Gallery, Australia.

1986 Sculpture exhibition, St Kilda Arts Festival, Linden Art Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.

1986 Created sound environment and videography for "Kinetic Sunrise", performance by Kevin

Mortensen, Alexander Theatre, Monash University, Australia.

1986 Video exhibition, Adelaide Fringe Arts Festival, Adelaide, Australia.

1987 Created sound environment for a multimedia theatre event by Peter Summerfeld and Kevin

Mortensen, "Why People Go to Traffic Accidents", Theatreworks, St Kilda, Australia.

1988 First Australian Video Festival, Sydney, Australia.

1988 Created live video synthesized wall for Stelarc's "Event for Video Shadow, Automatic Arm

and Third Hand", Glen Eira City Arts Complex, Melbourne, Australia.

1989 Second Australian Video Festival, Sydney, Australia.

1991 Travelled extensively around Europe and the USA

1994 Sound environment and videography for “Ibis and the Song’ performance by Kevin

Mortensen, Geelong wetlands, Australia.

1998 Sound environment and videography for"Display of the Bird King", performance by Kevin

Mortensen, Lake Burley Griffon, Canberra and video exhibition at Canberra School of Art Gallery.

2000 "Bodyscapes ", solo exhibition of digital images, the Photographers Gallery, Sth Yarra.

2000 Sound environment and videography of "Limnophilous Longirostral", performance by Kevin

Mortensen, Noosa, Qld. Exhibition of digital images and sound installation, Noosa Regional Art

Gallery, Tewantan, Qld, Australia.

2002 "Pixxelpoint", international group exhibition of digital art, Metna Gallery, Nova Gorica,

Slovenia.

2002 International group exhibition of digital art, Foundation Fita, Catalonia, Spain

2003 "Bodyscapes II", solo exhibition of digital images, the Photographers Gallery, Sth Yarra.

2003 "Bid for Freedom", group exhibition, Glen Eira City Art Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.

2004 "Postcards", group exhibition, Linden Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.

2004 "Bid for Freedom 2", group exhibition, Glen Eira City Art Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.

2004 "Memorial for the Victims of Terror", group web exhibition, New York, USA.

2004 "Diesel-New-Art", group web exhibition, Copenhagen, Denmark.

2004 Group exhibition, Kinross House Art Centre, Melbourne. Australia.

2005 “Bid for Freedom 3”, group exhibition, Glen Eira City Art Gallery, Melbourne. Australia.

2005 “Diesel New Art”, group web exhibition, Copenhagen, Denmark.

2005 “D-Art”, group exhibition 9th International Conference of Information Visualization,

Greenwich University, London, UK.

2005 “Bodyscapes III”, solo exhibition, Uniting Arts Toorak. Australia.

2005 ‘CyberArts’ Prix Ars Electronica, group exhibition, Linz, Austria

2005 ‘Artists Against Sedition Laws Exhibition’, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Liverpool

Regional Museum. Australia.

2006 ‘Bid For Freedom 4’, group exhibition, Glen Eira City Art Gallery, Melbourne. Australia.

2006 ‘CyberArts’, Prix Ars Electronica, group exhibition, Linz, Austria

2006 ‘Heartspace’, group exhibition, Adelaide Festival Gallery, Adelaide. Australia.

2006 ‘Bodyscapes 2000-2006’, solo survey exhibition, Brunswick St. Gallery, Melbourne. Australia.

2006 ‘Thirteen – Portrait of a Teenager’, solo exhibition & book launch, Uniting Arts Toorak,

Melbourne, Australia.

2006 ‘Changing Nature’, Greenpeace group exhibition, The Gallery in Darling Park, Sydney, Australia.

2006 ‘Genesis’, Rooftop Film Festival, New York, USA

2007 ‘Techno-art’, group exhibition, Lapart, Wallspace Gallery, Brisbane. Australia.

2007 ‘Piemonte Share Festival, group IT exhibition, Torino, Italy

2007 ‘Global Warming Show’, group exhibition, Asylum Gallery, Sacramento, USA

2007 ‘International Postcard Show,’ group exhibition, Circa Magazine, Dublin Ireland

2007 ‘Snap to the Grid’, group exhibition, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, USA

2007 ‘Digital Fringe, group web exhibition, Melbourne Fringe Arts Festival. Australia.

2007 Video Art Festival, group exhibition with Kevin Mortensen, City of Dandenong, Melbourne. Australia.

2008 Magmart International Videoart Festival, Casoria Contemporary Art Museum, Naples, Italy

2008 “Who Let the Dogs Out”, group exhibition with Kevin Mortensen, Lake Maquarie City Art Gallery, NSW

2008 ‘Bid 4 Freedom;, group exhibition, Glen Eira City Art Gallery, Melbourne. Australia.

2008 ‘Weep Leviathan’, group exhibition, Collingwood Gallery, Melbourne. Australia.

2008 ‘Project’, Digital Media Street Festival, Gertrude Association, Melbourne. Australia.

2008 ‘Arte Bogota 08’, group exhibition, Bogota, Columbia.

2008 ‘Digital Media Street Festival’, group exhibition, The Gertrude Association, Melbourne, Australia.

2008 Stock show, group exhibition, United Arts Toorak, Melbourne. Australia.

2008 ‘ruMAD’, group exhibition, Kingston Arts Centre Gallery, Melbourne. Australia.

2008 ‘FocFest’, international film festival, Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art,

NPAK/ACCEA, Yerevan, Armenia.

2008 'FocFest', Freedom of Choice International Film Festival, Fabrica do Braco de Prata, Lisbon, Portugal and

simultaneously at Ciplak Ayaklar Sudio, Istanbul, Turkey.

2009 'Human Emotion Project', international curated group exhibition, Guilford Lane Gallery, Melbourne.

2009 'FocFest Survey', selected work from the Freedom of Choice International Video Art Festival broadcast

repeatedly on Transfera TV, Madrid, Spain.

2009 'Ern Malley: The Hoax and Beyond', group exhibition, Heide Museum of Modern Art, NGV, Melbourne.

2009 “Human Emotion Project”, international group exhibition, Garden of the Ceramic Museum (State

Museum), Caldas-da-Rainha, Lisbon, Portugal.

2009 ‘Art for Peace International Art Action’, group exhibition, Dolmabahce Art Gallery (State Gallery) and

Fotografevi (Istanbul Photography Centre), Istanbul, Turkey.

2010 ‘HEP Poland’, international group exhibition, Parakino, CSW bath, Gdansk, Poland.

2010 ‘AusThetic’, group video art exhibition, Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia.

2010 ‘ArtFelt’, group exhibition, Northern Rivers Community Art Gallery, NSW.

2010 ‘HEP Paris’, international group exhibition, Gallerie Younique, Paris, France.

2010 “Program 45” international video art broadcast on Transfera TV, Madrid, Spain

2010 ‘Human Emotion Project Iran, international group exhibition, Mohsen Art Gallery and Sazmanab

Project, Tehran, Iran.

2010 “Shapes of Peace”, international group exhibition, W-AFPIAAP, Peace Week, Sanski, Sarajevo, Boznia

Herzegovina

2010 Nimbin Film Festival, Australia

2010 Istanbul Art Fair, Tuyap Exhibition and Congress Centre, Istanbul, Turkey

2010 Madatac VIDEO ARtMY, international videoart festival, Sala Berlanga, Madrid, Spain

2010 MADATAC Metropolis Awards, broadcast on TV2 National Spanish TV and Spanish International

Channel, Spain.

2011 Time is Love 4, international touring exhibition curated by Kisito Assangni,

Centro Contemporanea d’Arte Ticino, Bellinzona, Switzerland.

2011 Time is Love 4, international touring exhibition, Hexagon Space, Baltimore, USA

2011 Time is Love 4, international curated exhibition, Sint-Lukas University Gallery, Brussels,

Belgium

2011 D-ART, international group exhibition, 15th International Conference Information

Visualization & Computer Graphics, Brunei Gallery, London University, UK.

2011 Group exhibition, The Channon Art Gallery, Australia.

2011 ‘Mirror Mirror’, international curated exhibition, Bittes Gallery, Ribe, Denmark.

2011 Time is Love 4’, curated international exhibition, Espace apArt, Guanghzou, China

2011 ‘Hello’, group exhibition, Art For Peace Interaction Space, Istanbul, Turkey.

2011 Blue Banana Video Festival, international group exhibition, Landau, Bavaria, Germany.

2011 ‘Chain Letter’, international curated exhibition, Samson Gallery, Boston, USA. Part of a world wide

simultaneous exhibition of admired artists in Los Angeles, Zurich, Berlin, Boston, London, Paris,

Philadelphia, San Francisco, Johannesburg, and Seoul.

2011 W-AFPIAAP, Balkans international touring exhibition, Istanbul, Sofia, Sarajevo, Mostar, Dubrovnik,

Montenegro, Belgrade, Bucharest.

2011 ‘Art for Peace – Balkans’, W-AFPIAA group exhibition, Herastau Art Gallery, Bucharest, Romania.

2011 ‘Time is Love 4’, curated international exhibition, Bildetage Gallery, Vienna, Austria.

2012 Byron Bay International Film Festival, Australia

2012 HEP Mexico, curated international video art exhibition, 2* Bataclan InterNacional, Cine Cuidadela,

Mexico City, Mexico.

2012 Best of Blue Banana Video Festival, Kastenhof Museum, Landau, Bavaria.

2013 “Time is Love 6”, international curated exhibition, Mori + Stein Gallery, London, UK.

2013 “Time is Love 6”, international curated exhibition, Sazmanab Project, Tehran, Iran.

2013 Tea in a Thunder Cup, Peanut Underground Art Gallery, New York, USA during the Armory Show.

2013 “Tea in a Thunder Cup”, Cinema X, Ex Teresa Arte Actual, Instuto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico City,

Mexico.

2013 “Time is Love 6”, international group exhibition, Peanut Underground Art Project, New York, USA.

2013 “Art for Peace International Art Action”, touring group exhibition, New Delhi and Alwar City Exhibition

Hall, India

2013 NordArt 2013, international group exhibition, Kunstwerk Carlshutte, Budelsdorf, Germany

2013 Fonlad, international group exhibition, HEP, 9th edition Festival de Artes Digitais,

Espaço de Artes Multimédia e Performance, Coimbra, Portugal.

2013 Time is Love 6, International Nomadic Performance Festival, Stiftelsen 3,14, Bergen, Norway.

2013 Facade Video Festival, Art of Today Association, Centre for Contemporary Art, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

2013 Blue Banana Video Festival, international group exhibition, Kult Kino, Landau, Bavaria

2013 A Photo From Oz, group exhibition, Bucharest, Romania

2014 Byron Bay International Film Festival, Australia

2014 Azores Fringe Arts Festival, Mirateca Arts, Pico, Azores Islands.

2014 Allure, RAWArtists, Byron Bay, Australia

2014 Mildura Sculpture Triennial Retrospective, Mildura Art Gallery, Australia.

2014 ‘We, The Muse’, group exhibition, aMBUSH Gallery, Sydney, Australia.

2015 'D-Art', group exhibition, 12th International Conference Computer Graphics, Imaging and Visualization,

University of Barcelona, Spain.

2015 Pulpolandia, international mail art exhibition, Zona Postal, Argentina.

2016 ArtPlay, international video art exhibition, Moscow, Russia.

2016 Stitchting White Cube, touring international group exhibition, ArtZaanstad/BACKFIRE, The Netherlands;

Landshut, Germany; Kulturhuset Brønden, Brøndby Strand, Denmark.

2016 'Under the Radar', group exhibition, Serpentine Gallery, Australia.

2016 Global Videos, Stitchting White Cube, group exhibition on World Human Rights Day, 10th Dec 2016 at

Filmhuis, Alkmaar, The Netherlands; Barnaby Arts Council, Deer Lake Gallery, Canada; Sinema Kolekan,

Jakarta, Indonesia; Studio Seven, Karachi, Pakistan; Gallery Mcube, Nepal; Cumuna de Han-Ian, Macau;

Beechwood House, Scotland; Studio Sonia Gil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Galleria Rajatila, Finland; Kulturhuset

Kilden, Denmark; Mamuta Art & Research Centre, Jerusalem, Israel; Spoldzielnia Ogniwo, Krakow, Poland;

Serpentine Gallery, Australia; Noname hub, Milan, Italy; The Little One Atelier, Hong Kong; Paratissima,

Macedonia, and Podium de Flux, Zaandam, The Netherlands.

2017 'Yan', group exhibition, Serpentine Gallery, Australia.

2018 'Scarlett' group exhibition, Serpentine Gallery, Australia.

2018 Biennale of Australian Art, group exhibition, Ballarat, Australia.

2019 'Radical', group exhibition, Hyperflexion Contemporary Art Gallery, Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa.

2019 'Humanitas', group web exhibition, Lys d'Or. France.

2019 Connection Project, group exhibition, Stone & Wood Brewery, Byron Bay, Australia.

2020 'Bird', group exhibition, Hyperflexion Contemporary Art Gallery, Republic of South Africa.

Bibliography

1981 “Performance, Then & Now in Australia”. Art Network. issue 3 & 4.

1983 “Live Art” ed Jane Kent & Anne Marsh.

1984 “Sculpture Park: A Proposal”, Australia Council for the Arts.

1993 “Body & Self” by Anne Marsh, Oxford University Press.

2004 “Rayograph”, Man Ray special edition, UQ Vanguard, March edition.

2005 Exhibition preview, Melbourne Times, Fairfax Press.

2005 Exhibition preview, Heidelberg Weekly.

2006 Exhibition preview, Melbourne Times, Fairfax Press.

2006 Exhibition preview, Heidelberg Weekly, Fairfax Press.

2006 ‘Thirteen – Portrait of a Teenager’, Neil Howe, InkLink Press.

2009 ‘Ern Malley. The Hoax and Beyond’ by David Rainey. Heide Museum of Modern Art. Melbourne.

2009 ‘HEP Portugal’, Moment eMagazine, May issue.

2009 ‘Idiosynchronism’ by Nic Costa, Arteri magazine, Nov issue

2017 'Parallel Realities: The Development of Performance Art in Australia', Neil Howe, Thames & Hudson.

Awards

1980 Powell Street Gallery Sculpture Prize.

1981 Australia Council for the Arts research grant.

1984 Australia Council for the Arts publishing grant.

2009 Janet Holmes a Court artist grant, NAVA

2010 Metropolis Award, Madrid Festival of Contemporary Audio-Visual Arts, MADATAC, Spain.

2011 Audience Award plus Second place award, Blue Banana Video Art Festival, Landau, Bavaria.

2012 Nominated for Best Byron Film, Byron Bay International Film Festival, Australia.

2016 Australia Council for the Arts Grant

Collections

Heide Museum of Modern Art, Australia

Numerous private collections in Australia, USA, South America, Republic of South Africa and Europe.

National Film & Sound Archive, Australia.

State Library of Victoria.

University of South Australia Library.

Queensland State Library.

Library in London, UK

National Library of Australia.