Jeff Kowatch

Heir to the great Flemish masters, American peinter Jeff Kowatch has borrowed from them their impeccable glazing technique. He may apply as many as a hundred layers of paint to the canvas, tirelessly scraping, sanding, and re-covering each one to create abstract works that are enlivened by a multitude of colorful circles. These same sensual shapes push and repel each other in his paintings, which he creates with oilbars on Dibond. From this gentle chaos emerges an abundance and a harmony that are almost mystical. "Painting is alchemy: subsuming base minerals with a brush into service in the pursuit of representing the Absolute, God, the Sublime - call it what you want... how could this tragedy not be comical?" Jeff Kowatch