Bio
S. Elliot Bowers resides in Chicago, IL; they are in their third year as a Ph.D. students at the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts and have three more years until completion. Bowers received their Master of Fine Arts at Northern Illinois University in 2019. Bowers received a Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2016. Bowers is currently working on a dissertation around polyphonic gender and challenging Judith Butler's performativity theory. They are the co-founder of UnPacked Mobile Gallery and Dispatch Mobile Gallery. They exhibit a keen interest in fostering the growth of emerging artists, while also advocating for cultural diversity and under-represented artists. Bowers is a transgender artist who depicts a creator in a sociopolitical culture currently under threat and oppression due to misinformation about the transgender community.
Dispatch Gallery
Dispatch Gallery is an extension of Unpacked Mobile Gallery as a remote option. The mission is to call on international and domestic artists who work in video, audio, spoken word, and live performance. At Dispatch Gallery, we want to create a platform where artists can collaborate and showcase their work through performance, video and film screening, and artist interviews.
Dispatch is about inclusion and diversity, bringing together artists with culturally and diverse identities such as persons of color, LGBTQ, Transgender and Gender non-conforming, immigrants, women, and individuals who do not identify with the mainstream culture. Dispatch is committed to showcasing artists who cannot perform in a brick-and-mortar gallery. Online platforms and collaboration will be the future for artists!
Co-Founders: Giselle Mira-Diaz and Shane Elliot Bowers
Dispatch Gallery Workshop Series
Unpacked Mobile Gallery
Unpacked Mobile Gallery was founded in April 2017 by Lauren Iacoponi, Shane Elliot Bowers, and Naomi Elson. So far, Unpacked has exhibited in Chicago's West Loop, Downtown DeKalb, Comfort Station Logan Square, Pilsen Alliance, Chicago’s Muslim Cultural Center, and UIC’s Arab American Cultural Center, with 20 artists and five exhibitions. Unpacked exhibitions act as a platform for social change, exploring topics of contemporary feminism, trans identity, LGBTQA+ issues, the cultural diaspora, and the sex-positive movement.