Mark Gowing

Mark Gowing is an artist and typographer living and working on Gadigal/Wangal country, Sydney, Australia. Through a creative practice spanning more than 35 years he has developed a personal inquiry into the poetry of form, grid and rhythm that he investigates using abstracted applications of text and systems. At the core of Gowing’s practice are systems of visual abstraction that appropriate the basic Latin alphabet. Gowing’s written phrasing is transformed into pulsating structures that shift between language and geometric abstraction, magnifying the hidden frequencies of writing as both systematic and expressive. Gowing’s work has been featured in 500 Mook Magazine, Art Collector, Australian Financial Review, Esquire, Monocle and Vogue Australia.

Beyond his artistic practice Gowing is the founder and director of The Letters, a type company that specialises in the development of expressive fonts, and was founder of the groundbreaking arts publisher Formist Editions, as well as the seminal Longform Editions sound art project. Through his highly acclaimed studio practice Gowing has produced creative projects for leading organisations and institutions with a passionate focus on the arts. His typographic work has been awarded and exhibited globally by institutions including the Alliance Graphique Internationale, New York Type Directors Club and Tokyo Type Directors Club. He has been honoured with solo exhibitions at the 22nd International Poster Biennale in Warsaw, Poland; the Divieto d’Affissione in Turin, Italy; and Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. His work is held in numerous institutional collections including the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, USA.

Solo Exhibitions

• This one is a song, Damien Minton Presents, Sydney, 2025

• Sandie Don & Mark Gowing: We were only inches away, Woollahra Gallery at Readleaf, Sydney, 2025

• Lane Cove Library, 70th anniversary, Sydney, Australia, 2025

• Division, Airspace Projects, Sydney, Australia, 2024

• A realistic picture of a galloping horse, Woollahra Gallery at Readleaf, Sydney, Australia, 2024

• ‍30 Manifesti, Divieto d’Affissione, Turin, Italy, 2013

• Music Art Film, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, 2013

• Laureates of 21st International Poster Biennale, Warsaw, Poland, 2010

Selected Group Exhibitions

• Waverley Art Prize 2025, Finalist, Bondi Pavilion Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2025

• Seed Pods of Democracy, National Museum of Korean Democracy, Seoul, 2025

• Immortal, Saint Cloche Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2025

• Fishers Ghost Art Award 2024, Finalist, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney, Australia, 2024

• Paper Form, Articulate Project Space, Sydney, Australia, 2024

• Vincent Prize 2024, Finalist, Scratch Art Space, Sydney, Australia, 2024

• Oasis, Saint Cloche Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2024

• Bayside Painting Prize 2024, Finalist, Bayside Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 2024

• Sydney Contemporary, Formist Editions stand, Carriageworks, Sydney, Australia, 2022

• Design Isolate, Australian Design Centre, Sydney, Australia, 2020

• Segni Esemplari, Bodoni Museum of Parma, Italy, 2019

• Hangeul Calligraphy × Latin Typography, Seoul Arts Center, South Korea, 2016

• How Posters Work, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, USA, 2015

• Nocturne, Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2013

• Stalled, Macquarie University Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2013

• Sketches of Bacon, Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2013

• Got the Message?, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Ballarat, Australia, 2013

• Braun Systems, Walter Knoll Centre, London, UK, 2013

• Graphic Material, UTS Gallery, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, 2010

Selected Projects

• The Letters, font publisher, founder and director, 2015–ongoing

• Residence 2026, commissioned cover artworks for sound art project, Residence, 2026

• Holiday × Mark Gowing, product artwork collaboration, Leif, 2025

• Longform Editions, curatorial sound art project, initiated and managed in collaboration with Andrew Khedoori, 2018–2025

• Graph, font family design, The Letters, 2023

• Formist Editions, art and design publisher, founder and director, 2013–2024

• Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, The First 40 Years, publishing manager, design, Formist Editions, 2024

• Jonathan Jones, untitled (transcriptions of country), publishing manager, design, Artspace & Formist Editions, 2023

• Kapitol, Formist Foundry Typeface Companion 01, publishing manager, author, photography, design, Formist Editions, 2022

• Kapitol, font family design, The Letters, 2023

• Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro, Ready-made Ruin, publishing manager, co-editor with Felicity Fenner, design, Formist Editions, 2022

• Fiction, font family design, The Letters, 2021

• Jonathan Jones, works on paper 2010–19, publishing manager, design, Formist Editions, 2021

• Taloi Havini, Reclamation, publishing manager, design, Artspace & Formist Editions, 2021

• Kris Sowersby: The Art of Letters, publishing manager, author, editor, design, Formist Editions, 2021

• Making Art Public, Kaldor Public Art Projects 1969–2019, co-editor with Genevieve O’Callaghan, design, Kaldor Public Art Projects, 2020

• Boulder Mono, font family design, The Letters, 2019

• Angelica Mesiti, Assembly, publishing manager, design, Australia Council for the Arts, 2019

• Ficciones Typografika: 1642, publishing manager, editor, design, Formist Editions, 2019

• SCAF Reader, limited edition chair design, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, 2019

• Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, management and design of 30 publications, 2008–2018

• Gemma Smith: Found Ground, publishing manager, editor, design, Formist Editions, 2018

• Outside Material, The cover art of Preservation Music, publishing manager, editor, design, Formist Editions, 2017

• Preservation Music, experimental music label, co–founder and director, 2001–2017

• Serous, font family design, The Letters, 2015

• Australian Poster Biennale, exhibition director, 2013

• Australian Poster Annual, exhibition director, 2011

• EyeSaw, exhibition curator, 2008

Selected Publications

• Sandie Don & Mark Gowing: We were only inches away, Formist Editions, 2022

• Mark Gowing: Inside the Oblong, Formist Editions, 2020

• ‍Studio Culture Now, Unit Editions, 2020

• ‍The History of Graphic Design Volume 2: 1960–Today, Jens Muller, Taschen, 2018

• ‍Hangeul Calligraphy × Latin Typography, Seoul Arts Center, 2016

• How Posters Work, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, 2015

• ‍Got the Message?: 50 years of political posters, Geoffrey J Wallis, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Australia, 2013

• New Masters of Poster Design Volume Two, John Foster, Rockport Publishers, 2012