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.[2]
Jeff Kowatch is born in a middle-class American family of Italian, Hungarian and Irish ascent.[3] 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.[4]
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.[2] Each of his paintings is composed of up to one hundred layers of oil paint.[2]
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.[5]
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.[6] His early series were thus inspired by religious themes: Apostles (1989-1994), BVM (The Blessed Virgin Mary, 1994–1998), Salome (1998-2002) and Thou Shalt (2003).[7]
His following series were an homage to the old masters, entitled Riffs on Old Masters (2003-2004). He also completed two series inspired by landscapes, Status Mountainous Cumulus (2006-2009) and Ponds (2012-2013).
Literature is also a source of inspiration for Kowatch. Two of his series are entitled Don Quixote[2] (2009-2012) and Moby Dick[2] (2013) 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 (2014).[8]
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.[10] Michel Draguet (Director of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts) talks of passion and ardour,[11] while Claude Lorent writes about art works "monumental, powerful […] expressionist by the graphic strength, tonic and fervent".[12]
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.[5] Through this series, the painter strengthens the link between his meditative process and his work.[13] Roger Pierre Turine evokes the paintings sonority, serenity and their balance between movement, colours and composition,[5] and the journalist Paloma de Boismorel calls Kowatch a "prophet of colour".[14]
Grand cru. Gribouillages et griffonnages. 1985-1995, Jeff Kowatch, Collection Alentours, Editions Tandem, 2021, ISBN978-2-87349-145-1, 88 p., text in French.
Conversation with Paul Émond, Jeff Kowatch, Editions Tandem, 2016, ISBN978-2-87349-125-3 ; text in English and French.
Jeff Kowatch, Full Circle, text by Michel Draguet, edited by Galerie la Forest Divonne and Faider, Nov. 2018, 72 p., text in English and French.
Jeff Kowatch, 2012, texts of Laline Paull, by Audrey Bazin and Melissa Mathison, edited by Earl McGrath Gallery, Galerie Vieille du temple and ne9enpuntne9en, 2009, ISBN978-90-9023-701-5 ; text in English, Dutch and French.
