JASON KOWALSKI
JASON KOWALSKI
Somewhere along Route 66, the Holbrook Inn stands like a mighty secular cross, like an emblem of a highway that’s holy in its own nostalgic way. The Holbrook’s two-tiered sign — a large rectangle set high between two poles, each one topped as though for a torch whose flame died out long ago, and a smaller rectangle set low — once offered rest and respite for travelers on the long road. Maybe color TV, cable, and a continental breakfast. Who knows? Now, the only thing it seems to offer is “1 BED.”
A mighty line of rusted metal and peeling paint sweeps down from above the sign, curves beneath it, ending in an arrow, pointing the way. But to what? To an empty lot? To an inn that proclaims no vacancy and yet is vacant?
I don’t know if the Holbrook Inn, which artist Jason Kowalski captured in his oil and mixed media painting Glimpse of Greatness (2023), still stands or is even still in operation. Nor do I know the extent of Kowalski’s artistic license in his depiction of the inn as it is (or was). Its top sign is an empty frame and in the
space of what the sign once touted, now it advertises only passing clouds. But I do know that the sunset light gleams off what little remains of the inn and its sign, lending them a brief majestic legacy just before night falls.
A horse and rider, whose faint image is on one of four discs suspended between the poles, hints at another majesty, which lies in its past and but is glimpsed in its present.
“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, but appreciate it for what it looks like today,” says Kowalski, whose work is layered with collage composed of handwritten notes, old photographs, postcards, newspaper clippings, and other materials that hark to America at mid-century, when travel by car was a culture, and half the fun of arriving at a destination was in getting there, and stopping at plenty of roadside attractions along the way. “Often times, these things are in dilapidated states, rusting, and falling apart. There’s a beauty in that.”
Glimpse of Greatness (detail), 2023, oil on panel, 72" x 30" Rest and Refuel, 2023, oil on panel, 26" x 44"But Kowalski, kids in tow, still takes such ventures. Only now the focus isn’t sightseeing so much as the creation of a record of a region’s time — what it was and what it is — before there’s no longer anything left to say.
“It’s such a fleeting thing that we only half realize when we’re traveling so quickly and passing these places,” he says. “You think, ‘Look how beautiful that sign is’ or ‘What’s the story there?’ Then the next time you drive through that town, that thing is gone.”
But Kowalski’s work isn’t all just motels that evoke the spirit of nostalgia of Old Route 66 and all the journeys it holds in its memory. In the LewAllen exhibit, Heritage Traveler, the automobile is a subject of equal weight. In Neighborly Nostalgia (2023), two vehicles sit, a car and truck, possibly abandoned in a field, although the field looks tended. But he treats them in the same way as he would a motel or motel parking lot,
embedding the vehicles and surroundings with vintage ephemera. Printed words, like the ghostly image on the door of the car— a message from a sibyl of the fields — reads, “America’s Hobby Center.”
The car both is and was an emblem for America. Something of the magic of the past is evoked in this tapestry of paint and paper. The nearby truck’s diamond pattern, layered into the composition, gives it another dimension, hinting at a soul.
“When we scout out these locations, I’m waiting for the best lighting scenarios, which is typically in the early morning or later in the evening,” says Kowalski, who has two boys, ages 9 and 7, and 4-year-old daughter. He turns his scouting ventures of the American West into family outings. “I’m instilling an appreciation for the past in my kids, and they’re actually an asset because they’re spotting things left and right. ‘Oh, check out that truck, Dad, you’ve got to turn around.’”
Neighborly Nostalgia, 2023, oil on panel, 44½" x 44½"
Grandfather’s Garage, 2023, oil on panel, 18" x 24"
“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, but appreciate it for what it looks like today,” says Kowalski.
Kowalski was bor n in Boynton Beach, Florida, and was raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He received a bachelor’s degree in fine art from the Laguna College of Art and Design in Laguna Beach, California, in 2009.
Kowalski normally makes a color sketch of his subject on site and takes reference photos, bringing them back to the studio to work on the composition. As a portrait, each one is like that of a person, which shows a surface image and, hopefully, something of the inner life beneath if the artist is adept at capturing the unseen.
He uses embe dded collage elements for two reasons, he says. “It adds a layer of history or of interest that you can weave a narrative around to speak about a particular location or time in America. People love to dig in and see a 1950’s-era ad for Marlboro or a Coca Cola logo that really ties into a place’s past. The other reason is the textural element of maps and text. Laying a map in the foreground is going to add texture and bring your eyes forward. The push-pull visual tricks it creates are
helpful tools to pull people in close, make them back up and their eye travel around. So, they’re really thoughtfully placed.”
His paintings can be read, in a sense, but not in the way of a portrait of a person, such as someone whose good nature is suggested by a glint of the eye, a rosy cheek, and a smile. This is history inserted in the form of fading photos and other detritus or scraps from our collective memory. This history may not be specific to the subject in a literal way, but these embedded layers form an imagined backstory that captures the spirit of the true place and all that it has seen. And this imagined past is what comprises the overall composition. The feeling evoked in the use of a vintage photo of a nude on the sign for the Village Inn Motel in Raton Oasis (2023), for instance, is more than a mere suggestion of the trace of beauty that remains. It’s the soul that’s fading slowly from our collective memory and from our time. But Kowalski’s paintings serve to remind us of that very good soul that remains if we look.
— Michael Abatemarco Mobile Base Camp, 2023, oil on panel, 24" x 24" Best Western, 2023, oil on panel, 48" x 72"
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Legendary, n.d. Oil on panel, 24 x 24 inches
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Neighborly Nostalgia, 2023 Oil on panel, 44.5 x 44.5 inches
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Best Western, 2023
Oil on panel, 48 x 72 inches
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Rest Easy, 2021 Oil and mixed media on panel, 18 x 24 inches
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Humble Charmer, 2023 Oil on panel, 27 x 36 inches
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Grandfather's Garage, 2023 Oil on panel, 18 x 24 inches
Quite Pleasant, 2023 Oil on panel, 14 x 18 inches
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Ranch Hand, 2023 Oil on panel, 24 x 42 inches
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American Tourister, 2023 Oil on panel, 32 x 12 inches
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Glimpse of Greatness, 2023 Oil on panel, 72 x 30 inches
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Eagle Park, 2023 Oil on panel, 48 x 36 inches
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Desert Outpost, 2023 Oil on panel, 20 x 20 inches
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Pride and Joy, 2023 Oil on panel, 32 x 32 inches
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Mobile Base Camp, 2023 Oil on panel, 24 x 24 inches
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Mountair Motel, 2023. Oil on panel, 26 x 44 inches
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Rest and Refuel, 2023 Oil on panel, 26 x 44 inches
JASON KOWALSKI b. 1986 in
EDUCATION
Boynton Beach, Florida
2009 BFA in Fine Art Drawing, Laguna College of Art and Design, Laguna Beach, CA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Heritage Traveler, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
2022 Under Western Skies, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2021 Rural Grandeur, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
Highway Rambler, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2020 J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2019 J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2018 Somewhere in America, J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2017 Vintage, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2015 Affectionately American, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2014 Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Time and America, J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2012 Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2011 A Popular Vacation Spot, Terry Martin Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2010 Jason Kowalski, Terrence Rogers Fine Art, Santa Monica, CA
2009 Introducing Jason Kowalski, Terrence Rogers Fine Art, Santa Monica, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2019 LCAD Collector’s Choice Featured Artist, Montage Resort, Laguna Beach, CA
J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
Curiosities of American Culture, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2018 28th Annual Miniatures Show, Abend Gallery, Denver, CO
LCAD Collector’s Choice Featured Artist, Montage Resort, Laguna Beach, CA
Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2017 LCAD Collector’s Choice Featured Artist, Montage Resort, Laguna Beach, CA
California Cool, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
2016 Celebrate Art, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Holiday Miniatures Show, Abend Gallery, Denver, CO
Ongoing Group Exhibition, J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
Chill, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Landscape Group Exhibition, Abend Gallery, Denver, CO
California Cool, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
2015 25th Annual Holiday Miniatures Show, Abend Gallery, Denver, CO
LCAD Collector’s Choice Auction, Montage Resort, Laguna Beach, CA
Ongoing Group Exhibition, J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
Wish You Were Here, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Pictures from a trip, Groveland Gallery, Minneapolis MN
California Cool, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
ROADTRIP, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Seen: A New Americana, Groveland Gallery, Minneapolis MN
2014 J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
Common Tread, William D. Cannon Art Gallery, San Diego, CA
American Flashback, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Time and America, J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
The Art of the Heist, Laguna Beach, CA
2013 J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
Meyer Gallery, Park City, Utah
Nothing but Blue Skies, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2012 Common Tread, CSUF Begovich Gallery, Fullerton, CA
J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
Palette to Palate, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
California Dreamin, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, April 5-30, Laguna Beach, CA
2011 Three Man Show, Meyer Fine Art, Park City, Utah
J. Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
Swenson Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
Meyer Fine Art, Park City, Utah
Gallery 793, Laguna Beach, CA
Hand Pressed, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
The History of Flight, Terrence Rogers Fine Art, Santa Monica, CA
Small Works Show, Swenson Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2010 Terrence Rogers Fine Art, Palm Springs, CA
2009 Jackson Street Exhibition, Curated by Scape Gallery, San Francisco, CA
LCAD Group Exhibition, Gallery 793, Laguna Beach, CA
Senior Fine Art Exhibition, 7 Degrees Gallery, Laguna Beach CA
Grapes for Grads Guest Artist, Laguna Beach, CA
Best of the Best, Laguna College of Art and Design Exhibition, Laguna Beach, CA
Urban Ambiance Exhibition, Long Beach Arts Association, Long Beach, CA
2008 Laguna College of Art and Design Summer Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
Best of the Best, Laguna College of Art and Design
Juried Exhibition, Laguna Beach, CA
Humble Charmer, 2023, oil on panel, 27" x 36"
38 $15US ISBN 978-1-951898-36-6 LewAllenGalleries 1613 Paseo de Peralt a I Santa Fe, NM 875 01 I 505.988.3250 I lewallengalleries.com I contact@lewallengalleries.com © 2023 LewAllen Contemporary, LLC I Artwork ©John Kowalski Above: Eagle Park, 2023, oil on panel, 48" x 36" Cover: Raton Oasis (detail), 2023, oil on panel, 72" x 48"