Jason Kowalski is one of today’s most visually perceptive and technically astute
painters of America’s mid-20th century built landscape. His talent is far more than just technical.
His painting possesses an authentic sensitivity to the people and time of the places that are his
subjects and, as a result, there is in his work an uncanny spirit that gives them a remarkable aura
of life and vibrancy that seems transported directly from
another era. In deference to his skills, Kowalski was recently
awarded with a prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation
Grant. LewAllen Galleries is pleased to present an exhibition
of 15 new paintings by Kowalski, entitled Old glory, opening
on Friday, November 8, 2024 and remaining on view through
December 7.
Kowalski’s work emanates an engaging sense of the
importance of preservation and memory of a time past. His
paintings present important places in the nation’s collective
memory, depicting these places like flashbacks to times past
but as they exist today: old bowling alleys, roadside motels
with their fading marquee signs, vintage cars and trucks, and
abandoned filling stations. These works go beyond nostalgia,
bespeaking the truth of time with no artificial embellishment
yet also softening a bit of time’s harshness with Kowalski’s
masterful use of gentle atmospheric colors and sensitive
perspective and light.
He paints with meticulous realism and
remarkable facility for detail, and with an authenticity that is
unique and exciting. “I’m not trying to focus on
idealizing a sign, a vehicle, or a building. I want
you to be able to see the history, and appreciate
it for what it looks like today,” says Kowalski. He
takes from the past in his work and extracts
memories to create a present radiant with
authenticity and poetry that touches both the
heart and the mind. Hidden within the paintings
are a variety of subtle materials, from
handwritten notes to newspaper clippings to
vintage maps and advertisements, which build
the stories of these roadside vestiges. For
Kowalski, these found materials
act both as elements of
composition and as conduits for allusive poetic meaning. When
taken alongside his subjects, these element of collage invites the
viewer to look closer and consider the richness of history and
memory, bridging the present with the past.
Kowalski’s scenes of the highway towns and rural communities of
the American countryside evoke a spirit of resilience even as his
architectural subjects erode and transform with age. His
affectionate treatment of these nearly forgotten places gestures
toward our shared sense of American memory. These works are
also deeply personal, as he scouts for artistic material while on
road trips with his wife and children. “We do a lot of road trips as
a family…mostly in the American West and [explore for] little
towns in little corners of America that are easily forgotten”.
Jason Kowalski was born in Boynton Beach, Florida, but spent
most of his childhood in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He received his
Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art from the Laguna College of Art and
Design in 2009. His work has been the subject of numerous
exhibitions and publications across the United States.