Tops at Madison Avenue Park

Justin Bowles

Green Fountain

November 1st 2024– February 16th 2025

Opening Friday November 1st 5:30-7:30pm

The opening will be outside on Maggie H. Isabel St. in front of the installation.

Tops at Madison Avenue Park 151 Madison Avenue (viewable on Maggie H. Isabel St) Memphis, TN 38103

On view 24 hours a day

Tops is pleased to present Green Fountain, an installation by Justin Bowles at our Madison Avenue Park location.

Green Fountain is an ecstatic rendering of a fantastical garden. Bowles' garden depicts a pool surrounded by animals and plants and crystal rock formations with three intricate collage works punctuating the walls of the gallery.

Using everyday craft techniques including screen-printing, marbleizing, stenciling, and collage, Bowles embraces the domestic means of disposable decorative supplies to create a camp idealization of a garden. Bowles' garden is a heartfelt and joyful monument to verdure. Inspired by The Unicorn Tapestries and illustrations of formal gardens, Bowles garden is both romantically sublime and tawdry. Her obsessive patterns render millefleurs by way of Michaels. Bowles' "in my room" DIY style of everyday decorative artistic pursuits is apt for the vitrine like gallery that is on view 24/7 and faces a public street; the democratic articulation of a personal vision.

Justin Bowles was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and lives in Memphis, Tennessee. She attended the University of Kansas where she received her BFA in Sculpture and received her MFA from Memphis College of Art. In 2024 she completed the New Public Artist Fellowship through the UrbanArts Commission of Memphis. Her sculptures are on display through 2024 on the University of Memphis campus.