Jeff Kowatch
Jeff Kowatch is an American painter.
Works
Kowatch is an abstract painter. His work is inspired by religion, literature, landscape, and the history of painting, and forms a chronological series of paintings and drawings.Beginning
Jeff Kowatch is born in a middle-class American family of Italian, Hungarian and Irish ascent. His family was not very fond of art. Kowatch started painting thanks to his parents' neighbor, who used to paint in her garage. Then, at the age of ten, Kowatch's mother registered him in an oil painting class that took place in an arts and crafts supply shop.Technique
Kowatch has developed a glazing technique inspired by the old Flemish masters, especially by Rembrandt, whose medium recipe he has adopted. This gives his paintings a lot of depth. Each of his paintings is composed of up to one hundred layers of oil paint.The Belgian art critic Roger Pierre Turine sees in him a link between the technique of the old Flemish painters and American painters such as Brice Marden, with whom Kowatch became acquainted with, when he exhibited at the Earl McGrath Gallery, in New York and Los Angeles.
Inspiration and series
During his childhood in California, Kowatch has been deeply marked by his catholic upbringing. From his late teenage years, he developed a need for spirituality, that he expressed through painting. His early series were thus inspired by religious themes: Apostles, BVM, Salome and Thou Shalt.His following series were an homage to the old masters, entitled Riffs on Old Masters . He also completed two series inspired by landscapes, Status Mountainous Cumulus and Ponds.
Literature is also a source of inspiration for Kowatch. Two of his series are entitled Don Quixote and Moby Dick respectively, and form a tribute to the heroes’ epic journeys. Kowatch is also inspired by Belgium and has drawn on his own personal adventure in his series Belgium Odyssey.
From 2016, Kowatch has been inspired by the themes of the circus and carnival. He produced his largest painting, Christ Leaving Brussels, in response to James Ensor's The Entry of Christ Into Brussels. This painting has been acquired by the Royal Fine Arts Museums of Belgium in 2018.
In 2018, the Full Circle series pursued the circus and carnival themes. The same year, Galerie La Forest Divonne and Galerie Faider joined forces in Brussels to show two exhibitions of those works. Michel Draguet talks of passion and ardour, while Claude Lorent writes about art works "monumental, powerful expressionist by the graphic strength, tonic and fervent".
From 2020 to 2021, Kowatch develops a series called Man Jok, a reference to his zen buddhism name, which he received after years of practice. Through this series, the painter strengthens the link between his meditative process and his work. Roger Pierre Turine evokes the paintings sonority, serenity and their balance between movement, colours and composition, and the journalist Paloma de Boismorel calls Kowatch a "prophet of colour".
Works in public collections
- Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Belgium
- Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
- Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
- Union Theological Seminary, New York
Articles
- 2021
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- 2020
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- 2019
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- 2018
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- 2017
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- 2016
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- 2014
- * Pascal Goffaut, L’info culturelle, RTBF, Radio interview, Oct. 22
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- 2013
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- 2012
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- * Piet Swimberghe, Wolken boven Californië, Knack Weekend, June 3–9
- 2005
- * Michael Boodro, Designer's Dozen, ELLE Decor US edition, May
- 2004
- * Piet Swimberghe, Zen aan de Zavel, Knack Weekend, April 7–13
- 2003
- * Ethical Strokes - Thou Shalt Paint, The New York Sun, November 19
- 1998
- * Claire Mc Cardell and Friedlander Lee, Art, New York Magazine, October 26
- * Ken Johnson, Jeff Kowatch at Earl McGrath, The New York Times, Oct. 23
- 1994
- * Daniel Cariaga, Music Review : An Ear-Opening ‘Concierto’ at LACMA, Los Angeles Times, July 12