“Color as Experience” Art Exhibit by GK Rowe

Abstract paintings exploring the emotional power of color are now on display in a new exhibition by GK Rowe at the MacDowell Gallery at Reid Health through July.

“Color as Experience” looks at how color can affect emotion and thought through abstract art and layered visual storytelling.

The exhibit invites visitors to look beyond simply seeing color and instead experience how it can shape mood, memory, energy, and connection with others. Each piece is meant to create moments of pause, reflection, and emotional connection.

“Visual art and color can play an important role in helping people by creating emotional connection, reducing stress, inspiring reflection, and offering moments of comfort or hope,” Rowe said.

“In healthcare environments especially, art can help make spaces feel more human and support healing through experience and atmosphere.”

Rowe is an abstract painter whose work focuses on how color and light affect the way people feel and see space.

His paintings are rooted in Abstract Expressionism, where large fields of color are the main focus and are meant to create calm, reflection, and emotional feeling.

“This body of work was influenced by my interest in neuroscience, design centered on people, and how environments affect emotional well-being,” Rowe said. “I’ve long been interested in how color, texture, and movement can shape how people feel in a space.”

Through this work, Rowe hopes to remind viewers that color isn’t just something we see, but something we experience and feel.

“My hope is viewers walk away feeling something personal — whether calm, curiosity, energy, nostalgia, or inspiration,” he said.

Rowe began his creative journey at age 15 when he convinced a local studio to let him teach painting classes. That early experience started a lifelong commitment to art. He later earned a degree in fine art and pursued a parallel career in business, eventually founding a marketing and design firm. His path as an artist and strategist continue to inform his work, blending intuition with intention.

Throughout his career, Rowe has shown his work at institutions including the Richmond Art Museum, Efroymson Gallery, and Editions Limited Gallery. His work is held in public and private collections throughout the United States.

He has also contributed to arts education as an adjunct faculty member at the Art Institute of Indianapolis, where he taught art history and color theory.

Rowe’s current work shows a return to the studio and a renewed focus on painting as experience. Through layered color, subtle transitions, and atmospheric depth, his work creates moments of pause and reflection, allowing viewers to engage emotionally rather than analytically.

His work is particularly resonant in places centered on well-being, where color and light can affect mood, perception, and emotion. Each painting becomes an encounter, inviting viewers to slow down, reflect, and reconnect.

Rowe is also the author of “Evidence-based Art,” which has been cited by the U.S. Library of Medicine.

The MacDowell Gallery is located on the second floor of the Reid Health Outpatient Care Center at 1100 Reid Parkway in Richmond. The gallery is named after Barry MacDowell, who served as Reid President and CEO from 1988 to 2008. Visitors can use the Grand Staircase or the outpatient elevators to reach the exhibit.