Miraculous Occurrences: Recent Work

Gary Westford

September 19, 2023 – January 22, 2024

“As an artist, I construct visual narratives that speak to our time, and yet, are timeless and universal. I’m committed to making good paintings that show a love for the medium of oil paint, and to a vision that is both clearly realized and open to interpretation,” says Westford. “These Miraculous Occurrences paintings bear witness, as narratives, for what I have seen and experienced over time.”

Gary Westford was born in Oakland, California, and moved to Oregon in 1979. An artist and curator, he lives and works in Salem. He received an MA in painting from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied with Elmer Bischoff, Joan Brown, and Robert Colescott. His paintings and mixed media constructions have been shown in over thirty regional, national, and international juried exhibitions in the US and Canada.

He credits the work of Surrealist painter Rene Magritte, poet W. H. Auden, composer Erik Satie and filmmaker Stanley Kubrick among his artistic influences.  

Westford’s work was shown in the 2021 national exhibition, “Disrupted Realism,” juried by arts writer John Seed.  His paintings were also included in the 2022 Northwest Artists Biennial juried by Grace Kook-Anderson and in Expressions West 2022 at the Coos Bay Art Museum. In 2019, a painting was purchased for the permanent collection of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art. He is included in the 2021 book on Northwest artists, Subject and Object, Book Four, A Photographic Look at the Visual Arts published by Aaron Johanson. In May 2024, Westford will have a solo exhibition at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art. His artwork is represented by Dab Art, Ventura/ Los Angeles, California.