We last reviewed Uwe Kowski’s paintings from a solo show back in January 2005.  Since then he’s swapped galleries showing then at the Gorney, Bravin + Lee Gallery and now at Mary Boone.  The paintings, however, have not changed a great deal since.  They remain claustrophobically filled with color, texture and images that recall the splashier practitioners of the New York School.  A couple of minor differences emerge in that the color is a bit more democratically distributed.  Also there are elements of this work that recall Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.  Some of this has to do with how the work is painted but then there are those titles embedded in each piece.  You see this clearly in a work like Schlucht where the letters are woven through the paint.  In less capable hands this might seem to be just a gimmick but Kowski pulls it off due, in large part, to the sincerity and painterly integrity by which these paintings were created.

Uwe Kowski, Schlucht, 2006, oil on canvas, 95 x 114 in

Uwe Kowski, 5 Bretter, 2006, oil on canvas, 95 x 79 in

Uwe Kowski, Gerade, 2006, oil on canvas, 79 x 95 in