Alex Couwenberg has added texture to a canon of painting that is generally flat.  An acolyte and friend of geometric abstractionist Karl Benjamin, Couwenberg has advanced the visual vocabulary of his predecessor while remaining true to its modernist roots. Upon closer inspection the pieces are intensely layered, and shapes continue deceivingly from the surface of the paintings to become ghostly aberrations on the flat enamel backgrounds.  Often the backgrounds of these paintings are not actually backgrounds at all, as we discover that the action on the "surface" of the painting is actually happening underneath the ground, and Couwenberg has brought these shapes back into view by a complex process of layering, masking, layering and revealing.  Only upon close inspection and with a trained eye can we unlock the mysteries of the process that was involved in the piece's construction.  

Couwenberg's postmodern Southern California homage is evident in other aspects of these diverse canvases.  A nod is given to several movements in West Coast art, and one is often surprised to see elements of the Finish Fetish and Light and Space movements.  Like many Finish Fetish and inland empire artists, elements of automobile culture abound; from the purposeful path of a delicately pinstriped line to the almost resin-like surface of high gloss acrylic medium, all applied with an absence of the artists hand.  Translucency and surface sheen is purposefully manipulated and shapes fade in and out of the viewers perception often depending on the direction and intensity of the light source.  Paints are thinned and suspended in clear mediums in a manor that let's only the right amount of previous layers to come to the viewers attention.  The seemingly simple becomes amazingly complex upon closer inspection and the viewer is rewarded upon their due diligence of each painting.

Couwenberg’s 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.