Kowalewski's art can be described as being expressionist, autobiographical, inspired by personal experience and literary context. As an artist he created his own communicative language. More important than form or medium for him was the message. In Poland during the 1980s there was a characteristic meeting of social and artistic paths, which were taken by artists who were researching that reality while examining moral and ideological values. The work of Kowalewski and Gruppa was created in parallel with and perhaps even earlier than some of the trends which were then happening in German art, such as "Neue Wilde". Rebellion and a search for identity determined the approach of artists then in both countries. From the first years of his artistic career Paweł Kowalewski developed the concept of “personal art, that is private”. Artistic inspiration therefore was closely connected to the artist's own life, while also at the same time it also referred to problems which were of a more universal nature. This basic oscillation between the individual experience and universality has accompanied Kowalewski's work up till today and reflects a consistent theme. Around 1986 the first of Kowalewski's sculptures came into being. Small objects, which the artist closed in glass cases, as if they were relicts from the past. “Prawe ucho sługi najwyższego Kaplan/The right ear serves the high priest” and “Kamień, który stał się chlebem/The stone which became bread” were critical commentaries on the hostile everyday aesthetic of the time. In a similarly brutal, expressive and nonchalant tone Kowalewski created his paintings which were even the subject of censorship interventions from the Catholic Church. The artist's work in the 1980s was treated by the authorities of what was then a totalitarian state as art which must stay outside official circulation. The series “Psalmy/Psalms” which was inspired by the Psalm of David as translated by Czesław Miłosz, was subjectively accused of blasphemy. Each of these works by Kowalewski referred to specific quotations from this book of psalms and reflected the dilemmas of a young artist: Should I leave or stay in my country? What is right? Is there justice...? The crowning moment of this period was the artist's participation in Documenta 8. in Kassel in 1987, where works by amongst others Barbara Kruger and Joseph Beuys were exhibited.