Jeff Kowatch

Jeff Kowatch, born in California in 1965, moved to Belgium in 2002 after working in New York for about ten years. He developed a colourist painting marked by the great American abstracts, from Mark Rothko to Brice Marden and, for the technique, by the great Flemish painters, Rembrandt in particular, whose recipes for linseed oil he has reclaimed, which give his painting a particular effect of depth and transparency, typical of the northern glazes.

Recently, Kowatch has developed a body of work using the oil stick technique on Dibond (an aluminum panel). These works catch the eye through the use of bold shapes and incredibly luminous colors, layered one over another. Thanks to this technique, the oil is concentrated in a single stick, allowing the use of oil paint in a dry form while preserving the intensity of the pigments.

“Jeff Kowatch testifies to a research as demanding as it is original: that of world music. Sometimes thundering and fierce; sometimes delicate in its polyphonies. A world of light that evokes both the late Monet and his magical water lilies and the mystical Rothko who unravels in his pure fields of colours the diversity of a world dedicated to the spiritual alone. Between the jubilant assumption of the luxuriant pastels and the calm meditation of the large paintings where the forms find their balance, the same breath passes. »

Michel Draguet, Director General of the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, excerpt from the text “Plénitude et mascarade colorées”, published in the “Jeff Kowatch Full Circle” 2018 catalog. In May 2024, the prestigious Skira publishing house will publish a major monograph retracing the artist’s career from the outset. And in summer 2024, La Boverie (Liège), highlights Kowatch’s work in its “Abstract” exhibition as one of the major artists of contemporary abstraction.