About Romanowsky
Rachel Romanowsky (b. 1987) is an American & British artist based in the United States. Classically trained in oil painting, she incorporates ground marble and found materials into her work, transforming fragile substances into meditations on strength and vulnerability. Her paintings explore the contradictions of beauty — where grace meets volatility, and what soothes also unsettles.
Having lived and worked in Zurich, Switzerland, Romanowsky draws from both European and American artistic traditions. The precision of her training meets the freedom of experimentation, resulting in textured, expressive landscapes that invite contemplation and unease. Influenced by Abstract Impressionism, early Impressionist gesture, and the media theories of Marshall McLuhan, she sees each painting as a living message — one that must be experienced rather than explained.
Romanowsky’s work has been exhibited internationally and is held in private collections across the United States, England, and Europe. She continues to develop a body of work examining beauty, resistance, and connection in contemporary life.
Statement
I paint at the edge of beauty and unease. My work explores how landscapes hold both grace and volatility. I am drawn to charged moments: a cleared highway after protest, a quiet marsh at dusk, a field bursting with wildflowers. Each painting asks viewers to linger inside that tension, to feel the emotional weight beneath the surface.
Oil paint is my anchor – a medium historically associated with beauty and permanence – but I disrupt it by mixing in ground marble, glass shards – “dangerous” materials. This process creates surfaces that are as much built as painted, forcing the image to hold both fragility and grit.
Gesture and texture are my language. Each stroke is a record of friction, each surface a witness to the forces that shape it. The paintings are not static images but encounters.
Ultimately, I see my work as an invitation to slow down and enter into dialogue with the world. By engaging deeply with each surface, viewers are asked to consider what lies beneath first impressions, and to recognize that beauty carries weight, history, and urgency.