Exhibition: Willem Volkersz: “The View from Here”

Montana-based artist Willem Volkersz (b. 1939) is a significant contemporary artist known for his neon and paint-by-number-style installations. He was a pioneer in the use of neon in art and developed early and sustaining loves for photography, travel, American roadside culture, Americana, and Folk and Visionary Art.
Volkersz studied art and architecture at the University of Washington before earning an MFA in painting at Mills College in Oakland, CA. After teaching at the Kansas City Art Institute for 18 years, he went to Montana State University-Bozeman in 1986 to direct the School of Art and teach until his retirement in 2001. His work has been featured in 46 solo exhibitions and in over 200 group shows in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, China, and Taiwan. He is the recipient of many awards, including a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, grants from the Mellon Foundation and Gottlieb Foundation, and a 2020 Montana Governor’s Arts Award. He has been a visiting artist and lecturer at almost 100 institutions in the United States, Canada, Europe, and China.
This exhibition is organized by the Missoula Art Museum (MAM). This exhibition travels throughout the Northwest through 2024 to the South Dakota Art Museum in Brookings, SD; Boise Art Museum, ID; Missoula Art Museum; Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University in Salem, OR; the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings; and Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in Great Falls.