By Bonnie Gangelhoff
Deserted diners. Empty gas stations. Shabby industrial neighborhoods. Southern California painter Jason Kowalski, 23, embraces them all with equal artistic fervor. “I like abandoned and forgotten places—the places you drive by and don’t pay attention to,” Kowalski explains.
Kowalski isn’t exactly following in the footsteps of the early California Impressionists, since he chooses to paint the tattered and gritty side of life. What makes his scenes unique, whether they are referencing the Midwest or California, is their distinctive textural quality. Kowalski is fond of incorporating text into his paintings—slivers of cut-up newspapers and magazines. In a Kowalski piece, for example, a newspaper clipping may form the roofline of a building or represent a crack in the concrete. He isn’t necessarily interested in communicating a specific message to a viewer with the text. But he does find it intriguing that viewers frequently puzzle over his random word choices. “The text is visual and historical and brings a human element into a painting,” Kowalski explains.
“He has an unmistakable joy of painting. He takes traditional painting principles, uses contemporary materials and imagery, and pushes everything to its limit.” For his part, Kowalski says his work is both a statement of the effect of time on a location as well as a vehicle to bring attention to things that are often forgotten because they may not sport a fresh coat of paint. The public has a difficult time looking past the blemishes, he says. Kowalski describes his creative mission this way: I want to make a beautiful image from ugly subject matter and give people a new respect for places they overlook.”
Dossier Representation Terrence Rogers Fine Art, Santa Monica and Palm Springs, CA; www.jasonkowalski.com.
Featured in May 2010
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