Alumni Spotlight: Luke's Journey from ISZL to the Dutch Art Scene

With a Fine Arts degree and a national grant under his belt, this ISZL alum Luke McCowan (’17) is now painting full-time in The Hague. His journey began at ISZL, where music, mentorship, and creativity shaped his path.

Written by Luke McCowan

Straight after graduating from ISZL in 2017, I started my study at HKU (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht, Netherlands), where I graduated in 2021 with a bachelor’s in Fine Arts, specialising in painting. Since then I have moved to the Hague where I now have a painting studio that I share with 4 other young artists just a 10 minute bike ride from the city centre. Since graduation I’ve taken part in 12 exhibitions ranging from the Best of Graduates 2021 at Ron Mandos Galerie, a very prestigious gallery in Amsterdam, as well as being nominated for the STARTPOINT prize and exhibiting with the other nominees in Prague, Czech Republic. During this time I was selling work here and there and had a part-time job to supplement my income, coordinated a series of art-related events in connection with HKU, and was occasionally a teacher’s assistant.

In February, I found out my application for funding from the Mondriaanfonds – the primary Dutch national funding organisation for art and culture – had been granted for their Artist Start fund for young artists. This meant that I could quit my part-time job and focus solely on my work for a year, which gives me so much more time to dive deeper into my practice without distraction or stress about money. As well as this, I will be taking part in Art Rotterdam as part of being supported by the Mo ndriaanfonds, which is one of the largest art fairs in the country where tens of thousands of people come from around the world to see and purchase work. I am now busy making work in preparation for this, and another art fair called Springboard which will take place in Utrecht in early June 2023 as well as a group exhibition at TORCH gallery in Amsterdam at the end of June 2023. It is a busy time right now!

I was at ISZL for 8 years from 5th grade till my graduation in 2017. The quality of the well rounded education that ISZL gave me is something I can’t overstate. From the overall quality of the teachers, to the curriculum, I have been given so many tools in critical thinking, writing and so much more that help me in direct and indirect ways in my life now. One of the main things I admired about my time at ISZL was how dedicated and encouraging the teachers in the arts were. Ole Wasner would jam with us (Max Albrecht, Noah Dommaschk, and I) well after the school day had ended with a huge smile on his face – which would always be followed by me and my bandmates eating chicken nuggets and fries at the old migrolino in Metalli – and Andrew Gray, who guided my art practice from when I first arrived at the school at age 9 to overseeing my IB visual art graduation exhibition, providing countless hours of mentoring and conversation. There was so much enthusiasm to explore these areas of life. I have so many fond memories of this school where my sister and I went and my parents both worked, and for 8 years, we had a built in community. I feel so incredibly lucky to have parents who took that risk to move us all the way to Switzerland to give us such an excellent education.

During high school, my dad – Clint McCowan – got very sick as a result of his PDW trip to Nepal. Part of his recovery was to focus on a creative project, so we started recording music together, as we had played music from when I was roughly 8 years old. On weekends we would write and record music, performing sets here and there around Switzerland and during school events. By my high school graduation, we had written, recorded, and produced two full albums of original music, and since have recorded an EP and another album during the first COVID lockdown under the band name (Milo the Band). I always appreciated how supportive members of the staff and fellow students were of each others’ creative projects. During my time at ISZL, I was commissioned by some members of staff to create pieces of artwork. This was really crucial for building my confidence and a sense of professionalism in my art practice, as well as gaining a meaningful connection with the people I created artwork for.

I will always remember my grade as being very open and easy-going without many cliques, and being academically driven. Also, definitely playing lots and lots of ping pong whenever we could get the chance!