The photographs of Dirk Westphal are dictated by personal investigations and inquiries into the experiences of his life as an artist. Westphal’s series are often formulated from different encounters near his Chinatown studio and from being seduced by the allure of artificial color and prefabricated beauty. Exploring various neighborhood bodegas, drug stores, and pet stores, it is in pre-packaged desserts, cough medicine, mouthwash, toothpaste, and fish that Dirk captures these ideas. Although each subject and series are fundamentally different, themes arise involving color, mutation, artifice, … (read more)

The photographs of Dirk Westphal are dictated by personal investigations and inquiries into the experiences of his life as an artist. Westphal’s series are often formulated from different encounters near his Chinatown studio and from being seduced by the allure of artificial color and prefabricated beauty. Exploring various neighborhood bodegas, drug stores, and pet stores, it is in pre-packaged desserts, cough medicine, mouthwash, toothpaste, and fish that Dirk captures these ideas. Although each subject and series are fundamentally different, themes arise involving color, mutation, artifice, contemporary culture, and the artist’s own sense of meticulous order. Inherently, Dirk’s conceptual depth is elevated, sometimes concealed, by the gloss of aesthetic beauty, humor, and wit.

Dirk Westphal received his Masters in Fine Art from the California Institute of the Arts. His photographs have been shown throughout the United States and abroad at such galleries and institutions as the Tim Olsen Gallery (Sydney), the CatStreet Gallery (Hong Kong), Baldwin Gallery (Aspen), DesignWithinReach (Los Angeles), the New York Historical Society, Art in General (New York), Exit Art (New York), Glenn Horowitz (East Hampton), and Mixed Greens (New York). His artworks are included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute (New York), the Progressive Collection (Cleveland, OH), the New York Times Photo Archives (New York), Pfizer, Corel, and Sir Elton John.

Dirk’s images have appeared in a wide array of publications and books including The New York Times and New York Sunday Times magazine, V magazine, The Village Voice, The New York Observer, Marie Claire, and der Spiegel.

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