Battambang

'Battambang' is the largest in a series of drawings exploring the street life and markets of modern Cambodia. My partner the Korean artist Hyun Ju Kim and I visited there in 2018 and spent many hours drawing and drinking iced tea amidst the bustle and colour.

Although it was December it was still incredibly hot. I wanted this drawing to capture the heat and almost neon intensity of the colours I saw.

The drawing was made during Melbourne's sixth lockdown. I feel fortunate to have had access to my studio all through 2020/21, to be able to travel through these drawings, and to bring light and life and colour to a time when our lives are so much constrained.

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Damon Kowarsky studied printmaking at Victorian College of the Arts and Glasgow School of Art. Architecture and the colours of earth and sky inspire much of his work.

Kowarsky is the recipient of numerous prizes including a Toyota Community Spirit Artist Travel Award, and Creative Victoria and Australia Council Grants. He has worked as a scientific and courtroom illustrator, and assisted as an archaeological illustrator for the Dakhleh Oasis Project Egypt in 2002.

Kowarsky exhibits regularly, with solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Canberra, Katoomba, Hong Kong, New York, Philadelphia, Wellington, Cairo, Damascus, Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi.

In 2016 with the support of the Alfred and Trafford Klots International Program for Artists he undertook a two month residency in Léhon, France. Works from this residency were shown at Warrnambool Art Gallery in a substantial survey of his prints and drawings.

In 2019 he participated in Art Colony Studenica in a 12th Century monastery in the Serbian mountains. In 2023 Kowarsky and his partner the Korean artist Hyunju Kim return to Serbia to take part in Art Colony Sicevo and exhibit at Galeria Art55 Niš.

He is currently working on etchings and drawings exploring interactions between the natural and man made worlds.