Museum of Art-DeLand | Through 4/9 | DeLand, FL

Mysterious Realms

A sweeping retrospective of Andrea Kowch’s powerful works of magical realism is now on view at Florida’s Museum of Art – DeLand

If January is any indication, 2023 is shaping up to be a landmark year for quintessential magical realist, Andrea Kowch. Last month, a major retrospective of the artist’s work opened to a buzz of anticipation at Museum of Art – DeLand, in DeLand, Florida, just north of Orlando, where it will remain on view through April 9.

Mysterious Realms consists of 60-plus paintings, drawings and sketches that span the last 15 years of the artist’s prolific and illustrious career. Viewed together, they offer an immersive experience inside the beautiful, bewildering world of Kowch’s imagination. The Feast, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 84"The imagery in Kowch’s work draws heavily from her Midwestern upbringing—farmhouses, barns and grassy fields; men reap wheat; women knead dough—but her renderings of the bucolic are anything but bland. Storm clouds rumble; a constant wind lifts and whips the hair of her steadfast female characters; animals snarl; women dine on a modest meal despite the promise of a feast spread out before them.

“Magic Realism paints a realistic view of the world while also adding magical elements, often blurring the lines between fantasy and reality,” Kowch says of the genre most befitting to her style. “The supernatural phenomena is presented in an otherwise familiar, real world setting. The subject matter is still grounded in the real world, but the fantastical elements are considered normal in this world.In the Distance, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36"

“My work is real with a surreal quality that is not necessarily physically seen or portrayed, but rather felt on a deep, intuitive, spiritual level,” she continues. “The scene is tangible, but the feeling is where the magic lies.”

Her cinematic paintings convey scenes that teeter in the liminal space between the real and the unreal. They evoke a vague sense of discomfort at the same time they do wide-eyed wonder. She captures moments that feel poised on the precipice of something ominous—a tornado barrels in from the horizon; a tree has caught fire; ravens circle overhead—while the figures in the scene are oblivious, lost in thought or labor or preoccupied with some other external or internal distraction.Expectation, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 10 x 10"

“Anyone can enter one of my scenes and feel the raw reality of them—old, creaking clapboard, dry, windy earth and air—the magic of it is in the feelings the viewer draws from his or her own spirit as a result of looking at the scene before them. All of my compositions are carefully constructed to elicit that response of walking into the scene and engaging with the subjects.”

Kowch prefers to keep her compositions ambiguous, to create dialogue and open up possibilities for viewers to bring their own interpretations to the imagery.

“I think, like any good work of suspense, be it art, literature, film, etc., it’s that sense of wonder and trepidation about what’s about to happen next that compels me to create visual narratives in such a manner, and invite a similar sensation out of the viewer. Things that move us mentally and emotionally are compelling and impactful,” she says.Light Keepers, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 72"

There are several particularly significant pieces in the exhibition that mark pivotal moments in the Kowch's evolution as an artist.

The Feast, her first large format piece of this scale which she created in 2011, expanded her narrative and technical skills, while deepening her understanding of the thematic threads that run through her work. “I quickly came to realize how much I loved creating and telling stories through these lavishly intricate, elaborate details, set within the recurring motif of the kitchen, the heart of the home, as backdrop,” she says. In the Distance introduced the male form into her otherwise feminine storylines, leading to an exploration of “the significant roles that feminine and masculine energy play in our lives…and observing how these dual energies exist within all of us and manifest in physical form.” Sojourn, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 72 x 60"

The Courtiers, 2016, in which a vintage-frocked maiden stands stoically amid a frenetic crowd of sandhill cranes while holding a peacock on a leash, led Kowch out of the kitchen and into “the wild fields of nature to study the subtle shifts and nuances between color and form in nature, and how simultaneously broad and limited that palette actually is.”The Courtiers, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 60"A sweeping survey of this scope begs reflection on an artist’s progression and, while she acknowledges this, Kowch is very much facing the future, abrim with creative energy.

“As we speak, I am already further developing new ideas and directions to pursue in both my current and future paintings, all of which I am extremely eager to explore and bring to fruition,” she says. “I am thoroughly looking forward to unleashing all the concepts that have been brewing ‘behind the curtain’ these past few years…I have pages upon pages of notes and thumbnail sketches waiting to be brought to life on canvas—more than enough to keep me painting for the next 15 years!” —

Museum of Art – Deland
600 N. Woodland Boulevard • DeLand, FL 32720
(386) 734-4371 • www.moartdeland.org