Steve Rowell

Steve Rowell is an artist and academic currently serving as an Instructor and Post-Graduate Research Fellow at Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), with a distinguished visiting professorship at the University of Minnesota Morris in Spring 2021. His work spans photography, moving image, sound, installation, maps, and spatial concepts, exploring the intersection of art, ecology, technology, and landscape as a site of political imagination.

Rowell's educational background includes an MFA with Distinction from the University of Oxford and a BA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests focus on terrains of perception, nonhuman intelligence, ecologies, and technology, where he contextualizes the morphology of the built environment with the surrounding medium of Nature, appropriating the methods and tools of the geographer and archaeologist.

His extensive body of work reveals consistent themes across decades, with recent projects like Lost Prairie Valley, Planetary Bayou, and Field Guide to Environmental Crime demonstrating his ongoing engagement with environmental issues, spatial politics, and technological mediation. His publications and projects increasingly address climate change impacts, ecological degradation, and the political dimensions of landscape.

Rowell's significant recognition includes:

• John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship (2019)
• McKnight Fellowship in Media Arts (2024)
• Creative Capital Award (2013)
• Graham Foundation grant (2013)
• Multiple Minnesota State Arts Board grants (2025, 2022)
• MacDowell Fellowship (2021)

His collaborative work with institutions like The Center for Land Use Interpretation (2001-2013), SIMPARCH (2003-2009), and The Office of Experiments (2009-present) has resulted in numerous exhibitions at major institutions including the Whitney Biennial, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Barbican Art Centre. Rowell's practice bridges artistic creation with academic inquiry, frequently engaging with universities through lectures, workshops, and residencies at institutions including Stanford, Columbia, and the University of Oxford.