| Artist | Andrea Kowch | Resides | United States |
| Website | rjdgallery.com/andreakowch | Medium | Acrylic |
| Representing Gallery | RJD Gallery Romeo, MI. USA | art@rjdgallery.com | |
| Themes | The Human Condition Evolution of the Human Soul Exploration of Nature’s Sacredness Divine feminine Nature Mystery Memory Emotion Spirituality Ecological Revolution Psychological Truths Consciousness and Awareness Industriousness and Strength of the Human Spirit | ||
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About the artist
American artist, Andrea Kowch, combines realistic narrative and naturalistic technique, subtly fused with surreal, dreamlike undercurrents in the quest to investigate and represent the human condition. Born in Detroit, Michigan, she attended the College for Creative Studies, and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BFA. Her paintings are rich in mood, allegory, and precision of medium, reflecting a wealth of influences from Northern Renaissance and American art to the rural landscapes and vernacular architecture of her native Michigan.
The winner of the 2024 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize Musonium Grand Prize Award, Kowch’s highly acclaimed paintings garner Best of Show awards globally. Major exhibitions at museums and galleries include the Museum of Art—Deland, where her second solo retrospective, Mysterious Realms was presented in 2023, the Bo Bartlett Center, the New York Academy of Art, London and Rome’s Dorothy Circus Gallery, Muskegon Museum of Art, where her first solo retrospective Dream Fields debuted in 2013, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville, Grand Rapids Art Museum, ArtPrize, Art Basel Miami, the Los Angeles Art Show, ArtHamptons, and SCOPE NYC. She also regularly headlines leading national and international art publications. Kowch’s works occupy public and museum collections, such as the R.W. Norton Art Gallery Museum, of the R.W. Norton Art Foundation, the Bennett Collection of Women Realists, Muskegon Museum of Art, Grand Rapids Art Museum, and significant private collections worldwide.
Andrea works and resides in Michigan, and is represented exclusively by RJD Gallery.
Andrea Kowch is the Musomium Grand Prize Winner, Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize 2024
Artwork Themes & Subject Matter
Inspired by memories, inner emotions, history, and Andrea Kowch’s fascination with nature and the human psyche, the stories behind her paintings stem from life’s emotions and experiences, resulting in narrative, allegorical imagery that illustrates the parallels between human experience and the mysteries of the natural world.
The lonely, desolate American landscape encompassing the paintings’ subjects serves as an exploration of nature’s sacredness and a reflection of the human soul, symbolizing all things powerful, fragile, and eternal. These real, yet dreamlike, scenarios serve as metaphors for the human condition, all retaining a sense of vagueness because Andrea wishes to involve and motivate the viewer in uncovering the various layers of mood and meaning to form conclusions from their own perspective, despite that her main idea will always be before them.
We all share a common thread, and as active participants in an ever-changing modern world, the purpose of her work is to remind viewers of these places that we sometimes perceive no longer exist, and to recognize and honor them as a part of our history that is worth preserving.
In juxtaposing the human form with animals and a bygone uninhibited American landscape, Andrea provide glimpses into “rooms,” those oftentimes chaotic places we possess internally. The rural, Midwestern landscape of her home state serves as backdrop for the stage of human emotions. The animals present are vehicles for expressing the feelings and underlying tensions suppressed behind the human mask. Symbolic explorations of the soul and events concerning our environment are expressed through the combination of these elements to transform personal ideas into universal metaphors.
The overarching themes and motifs in Andrea’s paintings are meant to appeal to and unite people from all walks of life, whether or not they are familiar with the physical and cultural landscapes of my region of the globe. It is the essence of emotion inherent in her works that grasp viewers and invite them in to experience a deeper conversation within themselves, regardless of their origin or current homeplace.
Press
Andrea Kowch’s paintings have been featured in notable magazines, books and online sources including The Bo Bartlett Center: Big Stories, Airlie Press, Women of Wonder: Celebrating Women Creators of Fantastic Art, Painting in Acrylics: The Indespensible Guide, Opaque Traveler, Conflux Press, American Art Collecter, Columbus State University News, Catamaran, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, Fine Art Connoisseur, Loaves & Fishes, The West Volusia Beacon, Flamingo Magazine, San Antonio Express-News, MLive, MiBiz, House Beautiful, Detroit Metro Times, New Jersey Stage, Macomb Daily, Elevated Magazine, Norman Rockwell Museum: Illustration History, Barron’s, Eclectix Art, Social Life, Shreveport Times, My Modern Met, Mallorca, Reed Magazine, The Purist Magazine, Hamptons Art Hub, Beach Modern Luxury, Fine Art Today e-Newsletter, The Sag Harbor Express, Bl!sss Magazine, The Artist’s Magazine, The East Hampton Press, The Independent, Arts & Entertainment, Juxtapoz, Creative Boom, Booooooom, Slice Magazine, Eclectix, Hamptons Magazine, Long Island Pulse, Visionarios, The Artsy Forager, Miroir Magazine, Womankind Magazine, Burnaway Magazine, UNF Inside, The Florida Times-Union, MetroJacksonville.com, EU Jacksonville, Monde Mosaic, Oribe.com, The Montauk Pioneer, Beautiful Surface, Flavorwire, Combustus Magazine, The Arts Issue, SlowArt Productions, Hestetika Magazine, Hyperallergic, Direct Art, Punk Soul Poet: Art & Literary Magazine, Cent Magazine, The Jealous Curator, DDMagazine, Artonfix, Easy Reader News, and Art & Critique.
CV
Education
2009 (High Honors)
BFA, Summa Cum Laude, Illustration, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI. United States
Visual Arts LQ Endorsement, Summa Cum Laude, Art Education, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI. United States
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023
Andrea Kowch: Mysterious Realms, Museum of Art – DeLand, DeLand, FL. United States
2019
Across the Open Sky, RJD Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY. United States
2017
Into the Wind, RJD Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY. United States
2015
Across a Rural Skyline, RJD Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY. United States
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Big Stories, The New York Academy of Art, New York, NY. United States
2023
Big Stories, The Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA. United States
2022
The Power of Women’s Art, RJD Gallery, Romeo, MI. United States
2021
All Roads Lead to ART!, RJD Gallery, Romeo, MI. United States
BIG Art in Small Packages, RJD Gallery, Romeo, MI. United States
2020
Departure, RJD Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY. United States
2019
“Midwestern Master Solo” Andrea Kowch Booth of Original Art + Print Collection, Art Market Hamptons, Bridgehampton, NY. United States
–Mother and Child, Dorothy Circus Gallery, Rome, IT, London, United Kingdom
2018
Diving Deeper into Mystery, RJD Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY. United States
2016
Women Painting Women, RJD Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY. United States
ArtHamptons 2016, International Fine Art Fair, Bridgehampton, NY. United States
The Princess and the Provocateur, RJD Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY. United States
Michigan Made, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, MI. United States
2015
Women Painting Women, RJD Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY. United States
Art Southampton 2015, International Modern, Contemporary + Design Fair, Bridgehampton, NY. United States
–A Magic Menagerie, Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation Benefit, Sag Harbor, NY. United States
