About Jack

Jack Berkowitz is a figurative painter and graphic artist living and working in the Hudson Valley of New York. Most of the work is large format narrative paintings and portraits on canvas and paper.

Jack was born in New Jersey and lived in New York City and its environs for the last fifty years. As an undergraduate, he studied art at New York University, Hunter College, and Ohio University. Earning a postgraduate degree from the Brighton College of Art in Brighton, England.

Strictly speaking, he is neither an oil painter nor a graphic artist. Jack's joy is creating two-dimensional art that combines mediums, in a unique and personal way.

Whether doing large-format narrative paintings or portraits, Jack considers himself, first and foremost, a storyteller. Jack believes that however well we think we know someone most of who they are, and what they have experienced in their lives, is hidden from us. As an artist, Jack's task is to uncover what is opaque. These stories often speak to sadness, illness, and death but also about strength and resiliency.

After the birth of his two children, to support the family, he gave up his studio and went to work in the publishing industry. He was a consultant or executive at numerous magazines including The Village Voice, the Nation Magazine, American Lawyer, and New York Magazine. In 2010 Jack left publishing and began working full-time in the studio.

In 2018 Jack became the primary cook at a soup kitchen in Brooklyn, serving between two hundred and three hundred meals a day. This life-changing experience has been the driver for a three years project creating a series of black and white and color drawings of men and women who are food insecure or homeless and eat at soup kitchens in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Putnam County, New York.

Many drawings are focused on people who are often ignored or derided but have not, surprisingly, multifaceted lives with great stories to tell.

Other works have been pulled from his dreams and family history. They are, for the most part, meditations on aging and dying. They focus on the deaths of Jack's mother and brother, as well as the ravages of aging on himself.  However, Jack believes that there is always hope and resurrection.

Jack's work has been exhibited in; England, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Ohio. Over the last ten years his work has been shown at; Windows On Mulberry, The Brooklyn Gallery, and Artifact gallery. Most recently he was in a group show at the "Arts  On The Lake" gallery, and Garrison Art Center. In addition to the work for exhibitions, Jack is available on commission to do portraits.  

Some of the original painting on this site are available for sale. Several limited edition prints or merchandise are available on www.reservoirsart.com