Born 1980 in San Diego, California
Lives in San Diego, California

Sheena Rae Dowling received her MFA in Sculpture from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and her BFA in Painting from San Diego State University. Her work employs multiple practices, including painting, sculpture, and installation. She has shown her work throughout the United States and in Mexico. From 2018-2020, she collaborated with Dr. Olivier George from the UCSD Laboratory for Addiction Research, creating a piece exploring the effects of substances on the brain. This site-specific, fiber-optic installation was part of Illumination, a group show about art and science at the San Diego Art Institute. She completed a residency at the Horton Plaza Project Space from 2017-2018, with a show titled Memories from a Black Out, involving social practice and installations attempting to destigmatize alcoholism and addiction through shared personal experience. In 2017 she completed a series of paintings for the San Diego International Airport Intergalactic Dreaming, a year-long show about art and space. She has been teaching art in various settings, including classrooms, non-profit spaces, museums, private studios, and galleries, for over the last 15 years. She has done work independently and through partnerships to provide art services as a means to process trauma sharing tools that can be used as emotional coping mechanisms.

For Park Social, Dowling is working with frequent collaborator Yvette Roman on a project. Dowling met Roman in 2016 while working as a teaching artist at La Maestra Foundation, a non-profit located in City Heights, San Diego, CA. They have collaborated on several projects, including murals, curation, live performances, facilitating community circles, and public art installations. The collective serves the community by offering free and accessible art in classes, public art, and performances. Their work centers on trauma-informed care and restorative practices. In September of 2021, they completed a mural for San Diego Downtown Partnership.