Oil & mixed media on panel, 60 x 60 x 2.5 in
Midland, 2025
Jason Kowalski
Jason Kowalski: Western Stars
Jason Kowalski is one of the most compelling contemporary realists working today. Known for his richly detailed portrayals of America’s aging roadside architecture, signage, and longforgotten places, Kowalski captures the quiet poetry of structures shaped by time. In Western Stars, he merges meticulous technique, narrative memory, and embedded ephemera to preserve the beauty of transformation and resilience in the American West. Rather than presenting his subjects as relics of a lost era, Kowalski reanimates them as survivors—faded yet luminous in the aura of memory, standing under the vast Western sky.
“There is beauty in the undone, the abandon,” Kowalski reflects, and this philosophy shapes every canvas in Western Stars. His work resists the urge to idealize or restore the past to some imagined perfection. Instead, he honors the present condition of each subject—weathered, cracked, leaning, yet undeniably alive.
These specters of Americana drift across the canvas: the skeletal remains of a gas station; the sun-bleached marquee of a long-closed theater, its missing letters like a puzzle to the past; the quiet dignity of a rusting pickup silhouetted against the mountains at sunset, bathed in the warm scent of dust and sage. Faded numbers linger on weatherworn signs—whispers of another era, when the world moved more slowly and each dollar stretched a lot farther. Kowalski’s brush finds the humanity in each of these places and objects, offering a kind of portraiture of the past that is both deeply personal and universally recognizable. Viewers are drawn in not only
by the subjects themselves but by the implied histories they contain—stories of travelers, families, and communities that once gave them life.
“Time is a constant in all of our lives,” Kowalski told Western Art & Architecture. His paintings are not acts of preservation in the traditional sense; they are acknowledgments of change as a natural and even beautiful process. Cracked paint, bent metal, and fading colors are not flaws to be erased but markers of survival in the presence of time, recording each year that has passed. This awareness infuses his work with urgency. “Seeing how time has changed these places and objects is a reminder that today is precious,” he says. Each painting becomes a small archive—a document of a specific site at a specific moment, with all its imperfections intact.
In Western Stars, time operates like a secondary medium. Light slants differently on an old neon bulb sign than it once did. Shadows stretch longer on a roadside café closed for decades. These subtle shifts invite viewers to slow down, to look closely, to acknowledge what might otherwise vanish unremarked. As Kowalski describes, “Like the stars in the sky, if we take the time to see, we are rewarded with a rich account of time and unmistakable beauty.”
One of the most distinctive features of Kowalski’s recent work is his use of embedded ephemera, the artifacts of the moments in time his paintings so eloquently honor— handwritten notes, postcards, newspaper clippings, and photographs—that weave across the painted surface. Sometimes these artifacts are almost fully legible; other times they dissolve into fragments of texture and line. In the painting Pretty
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Winchester Drive In, 2025
Oil & mixed media on panel, 72 x 48 x 2.5 in
Saturday Night Specials, 2025 Oil & mixed media on panel, 60
x 48 x 2.5 in
Jason Kowalski: Western Stars
in Pink, depicting a pink 1960s Dodge sedan, for example, Kowalski chose to include a handwritten note—not for the meaning of the words, but for the beauty of the script itself as it dances in and out of the foreground. “The softness of cursive script is a wonderful juxtaposition to the hard-edged stroke of my paintbrush,” he explains. This interplay of word and image creates a layered viewing experience, the human touch of penmanship contrasting with the precision of his architectural and mechanical renderings.
Many works in the exhibition are rooted in moments of personal connection. A particularly poignant example is Hometown Haven, depicting a small-town café in Florence, Colorado. Kowalski recalls the exact moment he first saw the building: “My wife and I were visiting the town, popping in and out of local antique shops. My young son, tired of walking, sat upon my shoulders as we crossed the road. It was such a happy family memory. I knew it would be an interesting painting.” The resulting work is not merely an architectural study but an evocation of warmth, conversation, and shared experience—an intimate moment woven into the fabric of place.
Kowalski’s process is rooted in direct engagement with his subjects. He does not paint anything he hasn’t stood in front of, visiting each location in person, often during long road trips through the West. “I have to see it, smell it, feel it,” he says. “That’s how I know it’s worth painting.” His work begins with sketches—sometimes quick outlines, sometimes more developed studies—often accompanied by photographs to capture lighting and atmosphere. In his studio, he pins these
sketches to a pegboard, arranging them until a narrative emerges. For Western Stars, the selection and sequencing of works is as deliberate as the painting itself, ensuring the exhibition tells a cohesive visual story. Indeed, it is his keen ability to sense the very nuance of time and place—the persona of the residents of these buildings when once they were homes and businesses that comprised communities that made America of their times—that makes the paintings of Kowalski so unique and engaging. The viewer feels the authenticity of these images as though they might have been the places of their own forebears.
While his subject matter often leans toward the industrial or utilitarian, Kowalski’s color palette is surprisingly tender. He layers subtle, nuanced tones to capture the faded reds of rust, the chalky grays of weathered asphalt, and the ghostly greens of oxidized metal. These choices lend his work a tactile realism, making surfaces almost palpable to the eye. His fascination with craft extends beyond painting technique. He has a deep respect for “the humanity found in the craftsmanship of old”— in the era when signs were hand-painted, cars were assembled by hand, and every detail bore evidence of a maker’s touch. In our age of digital printing and mass production, his paintings serve as quiet tributes to human labor and ingenuity.
Born in Boynton Beach, Florida, and raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Kowalski studied at the Laguna College of Art and Design, earning his BFA in 2009. His career has been marked by a steady rise in recognition, with exhibitions across the country and features in leading publications including Southwest Art and Essay continues on page 10
Boot Court, 2025
Oil & mixed media on panel, 40 x 30 x 2 in
Joyful Spirit, 2025 Oil & mixed media on panel, 44 x 44 x 2 in
Jason Kowalski: Western Stars
Western Art & Architecture. Critics praise his ability to “elevate the overlooked and uncover the extraordinary in the everyday.”
In Western Stars, Kowalski continues his exploration of place, memory, and transformation, offering viewers a body of work that is both visually arresting and emotionally resonant. These paintings are not monuments to loss but celebrations of endurance. They remind us that beauty does not fade with age—it changes, deepens, and acquires new meaning. Like the constellations that inspired the show’s title, Kowalski’s subjects remain luminous even in their weathered state— fixed points in a shifting world, guiding us back to the stories and places that shaped us. In looking at them, we are invited to slow down, take stock, and see the extraordinary light in even the most ordinary corners of the West.
— ALISON JOHNSON
Ol' Timer, 2025 Oil & mixed media on panel, 48 x 48 x 2.5 in
Virgie's, 2025 Oil & mixed media on panel, 60 x 44 in
Pretty in Pink, 2025 Oil & mixed media on panel, 36 x 54 in
Dream Weaver, 2025 Oil & mixed media on panel, 36 x 54 in
Oil & mixed media on panel, 36 x 24 in
Sunset Ranch, 2025
Haven, 2025
Oil & mixed media on panel, 36 x 36 in
Hometown
No Wait, 2025 Oil & mixed media on panel, 12 x 36 in
Full Service Express, 2025
Oil & mixed media on panel, 18 x 24 in
Campground Nomad, 2025 Oil & mixed media on panel, 24 x 24 in
