Painter, born in Kimberley, South Africa of Welsh parentage. In 1927 he relocated to Manchester and shortly afterwards to Huddersfield. He studied at Huddersfield School of Art, 1938-41 where he studied under Reginald Napier. Following service during World War II in the Royal Navy, Bowen furthered his studies Royal College of Art, 1948-48. He taught at various art colleges in the 1950’s including Kingston School of Art, Hammersmith, Ealing, the RCA and at the Central School of Arts & Crafts. In 1952 he acted as Secretary to Paule Vezelay for Groupe Espace and he was a founder member of the Free Painters & Sculptors originating at the ICA 1953-56. Bowen was an early exhibitor at the Loggia Gallery and also directed the New Vision Centre, London for a decade from 1956 in the 1960’s and around this time he had a transient brush with Op Art and Kinetic Art, where he experimented with relief and with new, optically vibrant, fluorescent or luminous paints.

Between 1969-72 he was appointed an Associate Professor at Victoria University, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. His numerous group and solo exhibition venues include the John Whibley Gallery, New Vision Centre, London, Redfern Gallery, London, Lawrence Adler Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa, Drian Gallery, London, Greater Victoria Art Gallery, British Columbia, Canada, Birch and Conran Fine Art, London, Huddersfield Art Gallery, Yorkshire, Examples of his work are in the public collections of many galleries around the world including BM, V&A, CAS, Huddersfield Art Gallery, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, Wakefield Art Gallery, Corpus Christie College, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland and at galleries in the USA, Israel and across central Europe. A book and retrospective exhibition held at the Belgrave Gallery, London in 2001, together with the belated acquisition of work by the Tate Gallery, finally fêted his broad, but undervalued, contribution to post-war abstract art in Britain. KHG, Marlborough has also shown his work in their group exhibitions.