Ming C. Lowe (born 1945) is an American painter of large-scale contemporary works on canvas and a fine art photographer. Her work has reportedly served as a source of inspiration to artists such as Eric Burdon of the Animals, Paul Butterfield, Sterling Morrison of the

Velvet Underground Weave details visible on a purple-colored velvet fabric Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabri ...

, Jesse Ed Davis, and James Gurley of Big Brother and the Holding Company.

Biography

Lowe was born in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Her mother, Choral Lowe, reportedly named her Ming due to her love of

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

era art. Lowe's grandfather, a businessman, owned homes in

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, and the beach town of

La Jolla, California La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. La Jolla is surrounded on ...

. Lowe grew up in both cities. Lowe's parents divorced when she was 12, and Lowe later lived with her grandparents in Salt Lake City. She left high school during her junior year. Lowe returned to La Jolla in 1961 and became involved in the youth counterculture. She rented a studio apartment in Pacific Beach and worked at the first Hobie Surfboard Shop in San Diego County. Lowe, who answered their fan mail, also participated in the surfer group, the Mac Meda Destruction Company founded by Jack Macpherson. Lowe became pregnant at the age of 17 and moved to

Palm Desert Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley, approximately east of Palm Springs, northeast of San Diego and east of Los Angeles. The population was 48,445 at the 2010 census. The city has been ...

, where her mother and stepfather were publishing

Desert Magazine ''Desert Magazine'' was a monthly regional publication based in the Colorado Desert published between 1937 and 1985. A print version bearing the same name has been revived in the Coachella Valley town of Palm Desert near Palm Springs, California. ...

. Lowe and her partner married, but later divorced in 1966 after having two daughters, Sloane and Portia Perry. Lowe retained her married name, Ming Perry, and remained a part of the La Jolla scene while raising her daughters as a single parent. In 1967, Lowe bought a house in Palm Desert.

Career

At the age of 29, Lowe had her first art show at a gallery in

. She had her first painting show in 1978 in Long Beach, California, followed by many Palm Springs-area exhibitions. Her international collectors included many of her famous friends. Lowe built her own gallery on her Palm Desert property in the mid-1980s. Her gallery also hosted free screenings of surreal films by Luis Buñuel, attracting the likes of avant-garde composer Ernst Krenek and underground filmmaker

Kenneth Anger Kenneth Anger (born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer, February 3, 1927) is an American underground experimental filmmaker, actor, and author. Working exclusively in short films, he has produced almost 40 works since 1937, nine of which have been grouped ...

. Lowe later moved to the mountain community of Pinyon, where she reportedly designed her own house and furniture. She was reportedly in the top floor of the Hotel Washington across from the White House when a terrorist-piloted jet crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. She was photographing the smoke from the crash when President Bush's helicopter landed on the White House lawn. Lowe later photographed restricted areas of

Ground Zero In relation to nuclear explosions and other large bombs, ground zero (also called surface zero) is the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation. In the case of an explosion above the ground, ''ground zero'' is the point on the ground ...

. She then juxtaposed the photos with images of Muslim culture taken from her international travels for a show titled "Here and There 911." In 2006, Lowe was commissioned to photograph the

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

waterfront for the Port Authority's Art in Public Places program. The year-long project resulted in a 30-photograph essay, "Shift Change: The Working Waterfront," which was displayed at the Balboa Photography Museum. Throughout her career, Lowe has taken portraits of several notable figures, including Eric Burdon,

James Gurley James Martin Gurley (December 22, 1939 – December 20, 2009) was an American musician. He is best known as the principal lead guitarist of Big Brother and the Holding Company, a psychedelic/acid rock band from San Francisco which was fronted ...

, Daniel Lanois,

Eagles of Death Metal Eagles of Death Metal is an American rock band from Palm Desert, California, formed in 1998. Founded by Jesse Hughes (vocals, guitar) and Josh Homme (drums), the band also includes a wide range of other musicians who perform both on the band's ...

Noah Purifoy Noah S. Purifoy (August 17, 1917 – March 5, 2004) was an African-American visual artist and sculptor, co-founder of the Watts Towers Art Center, and creator of the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum. He lived and worked most of his life in ...

Bob Seidemann Robert Emett (Bob) Seidemann (December 28, 1941 – November 27, 2017 ) was an American graphic artist and photographer. Biography Seidemann was born in Manhattan, New York, and grew up in Queens. He graduated from Manhattan High School of Aviat ...

, Kurt Shaw, Victoria Williams, and

Ted Quinn Teddy "Ted" Quinn (born November 12, 1958, in La Porte, Indiana) is an American musician, record producer, radio personality and actor. As Teddy Quinn, he was a child actor who appeared in many commercials, films, and television shows of the 1 ...

.Lowe, Ming C. "Entertainers" https://www.mingclowe.com/entertainers. 28 April 2015

References

External links

Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowe, Ming C. 1945 births Living people American contemporary painters 20th-century American women painters 20th-century American painters American fine art photographers 20th-century American women photographers 20th-century American photographers 21st-century American women photographers 21st-century American photographers