The Woodside Braseth Gallery is pleased to be a part of an unprecedented and groundbreaking simultaneous Three-Gallery exhibition of the artworks of Michael C. Spafford. Paintings and artworks on paper spanning his career will be on exhibit at the Woodside Braseth Gallery and the Greg Kucera Gallery and prints at the Davidson Galleries.
“I consider myself primarily a formalist. In other words, I seek to attract the viewer by visual structure of my work rather than with my illustrative skills. Since 1961, I have worked and reworked multiple versions of Greco-Roman mythology dealing mostly with themes of conflict, conquest and origin. By selecting these “stories” I feel free to make paintings that look the way I want my paintings to look, that is to say assertive, graphic and confrontational.” – Michael C. Spafford
“Spafford is one of the Northwest’s most original and compelling artists. Always struggling against the facile and fashionable, Spafford has created a unique, monumental style that is a synthesis of powerful imagery and brilliant formal invention.
(With a body of artwork spanning 60 years), Michael Spafford has found inspiration in the heroic mythology of Western Classical tradition. Drawing on the imagery of myths such as Hercules, Icarus, and Leda and The Swan, Spafford has created a body of work of rare intelligence and power. He presents the supernatural gods and demigods of ancient legend, whose antics once illuminated the mortal world, as vehicles for his exploration of human and spiritual values in the eighties. For Spafford, art itself is a heroic endeavor, the pursuit of that which is redemptive, an act of renewal.” – Bruce Guenther, Curator
