Paintings by Rich Bowman hover in a liminal space between imagination and reality. Though his work is inspired by many landscapes he has seen and photographed, it aims to capture and convey deeply felt emotions, executed in a style that, when pressed for a label, he may term Expressionism or Impressionism — while preferring more emotive terms like “energetic” and “haunting.”

That’s not surprising, considering the artist’s journey. Soon after his birth in Sherman, Texas, back in 1969, his family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he spent his boyhood reveling in the Midwest’s rolling landscape and dramatic weather. His talent for art led him to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute, where he interned in the studio of professor, artist, and illustrator Mark English — and then continued to work for the artist and his son, the equally esteemed John English...