Feb. 9, 2007 -- Artist Stephen Westfall is known for his colorful abstractions and has recently added narrative and figurative elements to his work. The University of Virginia's McIntire Department of Art presents a public lecture by Westfall about his artwork on Thursday, March 1 at 6 p.m. in Campbell Hall, Room 160.

Westfall received his master of fine arts degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1978. For more than a decade he has exhibited his paintings in the United States and abroad, including a 2006 show at Lennon Weinberg Gallery in New York and recent shows at Wilma Lock in St. Gallen, Switzerland and Paal Kunst & Konzept in Munich, Germany.

Westfall also is a writer who contributes regularly to Art in America Magazine.  His many books and catalogs include "Milton Resnick: 1957-1960 from the Collection of Howard and Barbara Wise," and "James Castle, Walker Evans; Word-play, Signs and Symbols."

Westfall is the recipient of awards and grants from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts.  His work can be found in several public collections including the Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria; the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Munson Proctor-Williams Institute, Utica, N.Y.; and the University Art Museum, UC Santa Barbara.

In addition to painting and writing Westfall has held teaching positions at Bard College and at the School of Visual Art in New York. He currently lives in New York City, and is an assistant professor of painting at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
 
The U.Va. lecture is sponsored by the McIntire Department of Art, Arts$ and the University of Virginia Arts Council.

For more information call Megan Marlatt at (434) 924-7206.