He was an artistic companion and close friend of the Expressionist Otto Mueller, exhibiting alongside him from 1926 in the 1922 Group.
Born in Königshütte, Upper Silesia, he studied at the Academy for Art and Crafts in Breslau under Hans Poelzig.
From 1927 Kowalski returned to the Academy as head of the nude-drawing room then of the painting department (also officially known as the Studienabteilung).
[4] He was dismissed from his post by the Nazi regime in 1934, losing his artworks when he fled Breslau in 1945.
He lived in Berlin from 1949 until his death there, creating stained-glass windows and other large-format glass artworks.