Painter Alexander Couwenberg makes sure to scrap the needless perfection out of the mid-century canon, improvising along the way on many a Modernist idea, as he helps shepherd this great American style into the 21st century. Like a jazzman feeling out a long-idle trumpet, his paintings offer countless new riffs on old favorites. Not content to replicate, he uses the forms and colors of Eames-era design and hard-edge masterpieces as points of departure for masterful abstractions that develop counterintuitive ideas across this untitled series. To wit, Couwenberg gluts his pictures with layered forms upon layered forms to bring about an orchestral majesty from apparent chaos. What initially appears to be a tense juxtaposition becomes a lyrical passage. This is an intelligent response to an era—our era--where inundation of images without substance is what ails us.

Drawn to the mid century movement of non-objective abstract painting, Alex Couwenberg’s connection with mentor Karl Benjamin was instrumental in the development of Couwenberg’s painting style and process.  He works both on canvas and directly on raw birch, a favored material of the mid century.  His process, an additive and reductive series of moves, creates multilayered environments that are deep and sensual.  His work was recently purchased for inclusion into the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art and Crocker Art Museum's permanent collections.  Couwenberg was recently awarded the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation Award for his achievements in painting. 

CV