Andrea Kowch has been described as “a powerful voice emerging, demonstrating a highly sensitive consciousness that informs a culturally-laced symbolism.” Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1986, she attended the College for Creative Studies on scholarship, and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BFA in 2009. Her paintings and works on paper are rich in mood, allegory, and precision of medium, reflecting a wealth of influences from Northern Renaissance and American art to the rural landscapes and vernacular architecture of her native Michigan. The recipient of many honors early on in her career, commencing in 2003, at age 17, with seven regional Gold Key awards and two national Gold Medal awards from the prestigious Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, her acceptance into these juried national exhibitions earned her representation at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. in 2003 and at the Diane von Furstenberg Gallery in New York in 2004. By 2005, she was granted a National ARTS in the Visual Arts Award from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (now the National Young Arts Foundation), an honor that ranks recipients in the top 2% of American talent. The winning entries were exhibited at the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami. In 2008, Kowch received the Best of Show Purchase Award from the Northbrook Library’s annual juried international exhibition, and in the same year received an Illustration Faculty Award from the College for Creative Studies.