CYBELE ROWE

CYBELE ROWE

The following information was submitted in July of 2006 by Virginia Repasky:

Cybele Rowe was born in Sydney Australia, second eldest of six children.  She is the daughter of a world's leading authority on Pediatric Genetic Research and a documentary filmmaker mother with a strong spiritual interest.  She spent her early years in the US as her father was doing research at Duke University.  Her parents decided to return to Sydney, with its magnificent beaches and glorious harbor which she grew up on.  Completing her High School at Loreto Convent Kirribilli, Sydney, she was accepted at 17 years of age to the premier art school, City Art Institute University of New South Wales.  Upon completing her Bachelor of The Arts in Fine Arts she continued her Post Graduate studies.  Rowe had secured the oldest and largest gallery in Sydney and an art award from the Australian Government enabling her to travel the world.  Meeting the influential people from the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art, they impressed upon her the need to develop as an artist in the stimulating environment New York offered.

Having had numerous shows in Australia, Rowe and her husband, decided to relocate to New York permanently at the age of 26.  Establishing her studio on the upper East Side, Rowe was able to have numerous high profile shows which included over a hundred paintings and sculptures shown through out the Bergdorf Goodman Stores, The World Bank and Kennedy Center in Washington DC as well as the honor of lecturing for the Smithsonian Institute at the age of 29.

Both her husband's and her career afforded them to move into their dream loft in the lower part of Manhattan, awaking to the Statue of Liberty every morning.  When their son was born in 1998,  both new parents realized that Southern California would be a much more bountiful environment for them as a family.  Together they bought an acre of land with an old dance hall, and built a large studio in what was an old mining town at the mouth of the Cleveland National Forest called Silverado.  It is there in relative tranquility Rowe has found the freedom to pursue her art with the most wondrous of inspiration, the gift of nature.

Rowe began sculpting in monumental ceramics over two decades ago.  As an artist, Rowe is the bold life force who addresses the sacred women.  Her females are not specific in nature but rather possess the position of the “temenos” or inner sacred space.  With her sculptures, Rowe creates containers to hold and announce these beings to the world.  In her earliest works entitled, “Vessels,” Rowe confronts societal pressures of female beauty.  Later with the birth of her son, Rowe re-claimed her space as an artist and completed three bodies of work in only three years with “Pleasing Female Imagery,” “Human Shells as Temples,” and “Female Elements.”  With the entry of her daughter, Rowe finished her “Fertility Figures.”  In this series the essence of fundamental emotions such as love and desire are embodied in human form.  Her works titled “Husks” explore the archetypal question of a woman’s purpose after creating life.  Each piece partakes in the journey after the seeds have been sown.  Only then is the husk or shell permitted to transcend into a container for the universe.

Rowe is in many prominent private and public collections such as: the Childrens Medical Research Institute, Australia, Australian Embassy, Washington D.C., the World Trade Centre, Australia, the Australian Consulate New York, New York, McDonald's International Corporate Centre, Sydney, Australia, Coles Myer Collection, Australia, and the James Fairfax Collection, Australia .  As a sculptor she has been featured in a number of documentaries over the past decade as: CNN, Making the Most of it, July 01, USA Live, interview with Greg Fitsimmons. Feb 18th 97, the Today Show, interview live via satellite from New York, Chanel 9, Australia, Dec 94 and March 95, Arts Review Program, Australian Broadcasting Commission, Televised Sept 92, Radio National Arts Review, A.B.C. Sept 92, City Talk, Channel 9, Australia , Televised Sept 92, The Search for Meaning by Caroline Jones, Television and Radio National-, May 90, Apr 91, Feb 92, and Size Video Magazine, Tokyo , Oct 91.