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Debra Bowden

Ireland
Lafcadio Hearn Arriving in Japan
90.5×63cm
sumi ink on bunkoshi paper

Debra Bowden is a qualified printmaker with an established international reputation. In November 2006 she became the first Irish artist to be awarded a scholarship to Awaji Island, Japan to work under the tutelage of the masters Toru Ueba sans, Masahiro Takade sans and Shoichi Kitamura sans, for which she received an Arts Council of Ireland Travel and Training Award. As a continuation of her training she has been invited to attend the 1st International Mokuhanga Conference to be held in June 2011 at Kyoto and Awaji Island, Japan.
She has recently been invited by the Embassy of Ireland in Tokyo to participate in an exhibition; The Open Mind of Lafcadio Hearn at Matsue Castle, Japan and has received funding from Culture Ireland to enable her to attend the opening reception and ceremony in October 2010.
In 2009 Bowden was invited to speak at the Asian Art and Ireland Conference at the National Museum of Ireland, about how her practice is influenced by Japanese art, in particular Ukiyo-e. In the same year she was selected to participate in the Contemporary Irish Drawing Exhibition Drawing Eire, which toured three venues in China.
Her work is in the permanent collection of Awaji City Government, Japan; The Japanese Embassy, Dublin, Ireland; and The Museum of The Book, The Hague, Holland.
She has exhibited broadly in Ireland with solo exhibitions in Dublin, Kilkenny and Wexford and group shows nationally.
Her commissions include several large scale pieces for The Office of Public Works and Japanese Woodblock Prints for the National Museum of Ireland.
She has won bursaries to The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig, County Monaghan, Ireland; Sicily, Italy; as well as frequent invitations to The Cill Rialaig Project, County Kerry, Ireland.