ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: 

Kevin Chow left his childhood home of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan to begin a professional pursuit into art through the animation program at Sheridan College in 2004/2005; although he was only able to complete the art fundamentals certificate, his artwork today is a love letter to the intersection of animation and fine art. He later graduated from SIAST in Moose Jaw with a diploma in business, marketing and then continued to the University of Regina with a B.A. in marketing.

Jamie Mason, a self-taught visual artist and storyteller from Cudworth, Saskatchewan, followed her love of creative writing, the study of literature, and education to the University of Regina, where she pursued two degrees simultaneously, a Bachelor of arts in English and a Bachelor of Education with a minor in Social Studies. Mason worked through and following her studies at the Regina Downtown Business Improvement District and fell in love with program coordination and urban planning.

In 2010, Chow gifted Mason a teddy bear, the exact duplicate of his own childhood plushie (Pohly), which she named Rawry, but it wasn’t until September of 2014 that Chow and Mason began toying with combining their styles and stories, armed with dollar store sharpies, acrylic paint on canvas and a sense of fun. They co-founded Rawry & Pohly and began representing their own paintings and artwork, touring across Canada starting in 2015, following their love of pop culture. They later moved to Calgary in 2019, where they experimented in new mediums. 

The resulting style of their blended visual art is deeply rooted in pop art; their artwork features striking geometrically shaped characters with minimal, iconic line weight, bold, vibrant colours, farcical names and descriptions. Rawry & Pohly have successfully been awarded grants for their projects: Lost & Found (2021), Chinese New Year Dragon (2022), and Along The Bow (2022). They were commissioned for installations: Night Lights: Harvest of Lights (2021), Bench Things (2021), If You Can’t Fly, Dance! (2021), Night Lights: Urban Animals (2022), Night Lights: Gummy Bear Picnic (2022), Discontinued Childhood (2022), Night Lights: Grey Cup Regina (2022), Night Lights: Fan Zone (2022), and One Pigeon, Two Pigeons, Three Pigeons, MOAR (2023). In 2021, they had their first solo gallery exhibition at VCAD gallery entitled, The Elements of Character. In 2022, they completed a residency at Sparrow Artspace, Birb (2021). Their motto, "celebrate your inner child," is an invitation for viewers to tap into their sense of wonder and playfulness. 

rawryandpohly.com
Instagram: @rawryandpohly