About Kaseowitz Art Gallery/Publisher

Established in 2026, Kaseowitz is a curated online art gallery and publisher dedicated to substantive work produced outside full-time artistic practice.

The gallery focuses on individuals whose primary careers in design fields such as architecture, engineering, graphic design, industrial design, product design, furniture design, clothing design, jewelry design, textile design, and related disciplines have required their full professional commitment, leaving their artistic work to be pursued independently, without the institutional support typically afforded to full-time artists. That absence of support has not affected the quality, rigor, or ambition of their work; it has only limited its exposure.

Kaseowitz exists to address that imbalance, presenting artists whose work stands on its own merit but who have not, until now, had a sustained platform through which it can be properly seen and evaluated.

Founded and directed by James Case—an architect whose own paintings are included here—the gallery operates exclusively online, with a focus on work that demonstrates seriousness, clarity, a cohesive point of view, and long-term significance over volume or trend.

In addition to its artists, the Archives section features a rotating selection of paintings and prints drawn from the gallery’s private holdings and secondary-market inventory.

Kaseowitz is also active in book publishing, with an emphasis on works of enduring value by authors whose career paths have likewise diverged from full-time literary practice. Its first title is a collection of poems by a mid-twentieth-century formalist poet. See the Books section for details.

Visual Emblem/Imprint

For the visual emblem of the gallery and publishing imprint, a painting from the Kaseowitz private collection has been selected: a portrait of an unknown man by an unknown artist. Painted in Edinburgh circa 1850, in the tradition of Scottish character painting, the work depicts a working-class man wearing a heavy utilitarian coat and a traditional tam o’shanter. The reverse of its stretcher bears a trade label from Alexander Hill, a prominent Edinburgh colourman who supplied artists’ materials to the Royal Scottish Academy in the mid-nineteenth century. A second label, affixed to the back of its giltwood frame, is from James Stanley Johnston, carver and gilder—an Edinburgh frame-maker who reframed the painting circa 1890.

The painting sits at the intersection of art, craft, and commerce. It not only captures a quietly confident image of a nineteenth-century working man, but also records the network of suppliers, framers, and painters that formed a vibrant artistic ecosystem in nineteenth-century Edinburgh. Though the artist remains unknown, the work speaks with a distinct voice, embodying values central to the gallery: craft, community, humility, seriousness, and timelessness.

The publishing imprint adapts this portrait into a black-ink drawing—direct, restrained, and rooted in history—affirming a commitment to quality and to working within a larger tradition.

Kaseowitz/The Name

The name Kaseowitz honors a family ancestor, born in 1896 into poverty on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The son of recently arrived immigrants, he rose to success through determination and initiative, making full use of the freedoms and opportunities provided by America. After serving in the U.S. Army in combat in France during World War I, he founded a manufacturing company, later headed by his son, that supported his family, particularly his grandchildren, in their pursuit of higher education and the arts.

H. Kaseowitz - 1918