About
About Johan Lowie
My work explores the emotional architecture of memory, perception, and identity. I am driven by the human condition—the subtle shifts in mood, presence, and absence that define our experiences. Whether painting a face, an interior, or an abstract form, I seek to uncover what lies beneath the surface: the invisible weight of a moment, the trace of thought, the residue of emotion.
I work across a range of styles—figurative, abstract, expressionist—not to fragment my voice, but to expand it. Each style allows me to explore a different facet of human experience. Some stories ask to be told in raw, gestural marks; others demand stillness and formal restraint. For me, variety is not a departure, but a deepening. Style is a vessel—not a destination—and I choose the form that best resonates with the feeling I want to express.
Texture, layering, and distortion often feature in my process, emphasizing the imperfect, evolving nature of memory and emotion. I frequently revisit older works, painting over them, transforming them. This layering becomes part of the meaning—an acknowledgment that identity and understanding are never fixed, but always becoming.
Through evocative landscapes, intimate interiors, and symbolic abstraction, I aim to create spaces—visual and emotional—where viewers can reflect, feel, and remember. My art does not aim to resolve, but to evoke; not to define, but to invite.
In that invitation, I explore how memory and emotion shape the way we engage with the world around us. My work doesn't document experience—it distills it, through color, contrast, and composition. Whether confronting the complexity of identity or the quiet tension of a remembered place, I ask the viewer not only to observe, but to encounter.
Bio – Johan Lowie
Johan Lowie is a Belgian-born painter and multimedia artist whose work explores memory, emotion, and identity through shifting styles of surrealism, abstraction, and impressionism. Born in Ypres, Belgium, Lowie studied at the Kortrijk Institute of Technology and – the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent (1983).
After eight years as a commercial artist in Europe, Lowie redirected his focus toward more personal, expressive work. He relocated to the United States in 1994, first to New York’s Finger Lakes region, and later settling in Frederick County, Maryland, where he has worked full-time as a studio artist since 2005. Since 2007, he has maintained his studio practice at The Griffin Art Center in downtown Frederick.
Art runs deep in Lowie’s lineage—his father a sculptor, his mother a singer. Multilingual and multicultural, he brings a polyphonic sensibility to his visual language, working across mediums to evoke psychological and emotional depth. His work often blends figurative elements with symbolic abstraction, using color, texture, and distortion to access internal narratives.
Lowie’s paintings have been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the U.S. and Europe, including Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michigan, and Belgium. His video String Theory was selected for the Soap Box project at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and his work was the subject of the short documentary The Line by Carl Anderson.
His paintings are held in private collections across the U.S. and Europe.