Biographical Statement

A native of Buffalo, NY, Gary earned undergraduate degrees in Christian Ministries from Houghton College and in Psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. While working for local government in planning, developing and delivering health and human services to persons in need, he began producing and publicly showing his artwork with encouraging success. This ultimately led to a return to school and the completion of a Master’s Degree in Painting and Art History from the University of Buffalo. Gary’s varied life experiences and career have influenced his art. The elderly, children with disabilities, the disenfranchised and the poor, and even more abstractly, the problem of pain, suffering and alienation have consistently informed his work. Perhaps most significantly, Gary’s Christian faith has been, as he puts it, “a formative influence and formidable adversary in the spiritual inflection and tonality of my art.”

His work is in the permanent collection of the Burchfield Penney Art Center and has been exhibited in museums and galleries in Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Ann Arbor, Buffalo, Olean, Rochester and other cities in the Northeast. Gary is a past-president of the Buffalo Society of Artists and he continues to live and work in Western New York.

Portrait by David Moog / Courtesy Burchfield Penney Art Center. Copyright David Moog 2015

Solo Exhibitions:

2019

  • The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University, Allegany, NY, Out of Darkness: Putting a Face on Homelessness

2017

  • Peter A. and Mary Lou Vogt Gallery, Andrew L. Bouwhuis Library, Canisius College, Buffalo, NY, An Interactive Visual Commentary on IS53: An Installation by Gary L. Wolfe

2016

  • Pausa Art House, Buffalo, NY, Remix: paintings by Gary L. Wolfe

2015

  • Starlight Studio Art Gallery Buffalo, NY and Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site,  A Musical Interlude: new paintings by Gary L. Wolfe, Buffalo, NY
  • Paul William Beltz Family Art Gallery, Villa Maria College, Buffalo, NY Journey Inward/Journey Outward: Selected Works by Gary L. Wolfe, Paul William Beltz Family Art Gallery, Villa Maria College, Buffalo, NY

2013

  • Artspace Buffalo Gallery, Buffalo, NY, Out of Darkness: Putting a Face on Homelessness: An Exhibition of Portraits by Gary L. Wolfe 

2012

  • Dolce Valvo Art Center, Niagara County Community College, Niagara Falls, NY,  Vulnerability and the Child Within

2011

  • Czurles-Nelson Gallery , Upton Hall, Buffalo State College, Buffalo, NY,  Vulnerability and the Child Within
  • Huston Gallery, Memorial Park Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, PA, An Interactive Visual Commentary on IS53: An Installation by Gary L. Wolfe

2009

  • Carnegie Art Center, North Tonawanda, NY, Dimensional Transitions
  • University Buffalo Art Gallery, Center for the Arts, Amherst, NY, Streams of Thought: Development of the Erie Art Project, a collaboration with artist Priscilla Bowen for the UB Department of Environmental Engineering

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2021

  • Castellani Art Museum, Niagara Falls, NY, Buffalo Society of Artists 125th Annual Catalogue Exhibition
  • Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA, 98thAnnual Nicole & Harry Martin Spring Show

2020

  • Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn, NY, Made in NY 2020 (1stPrize)
  • Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA, 97thAnnual Nicole & Harry Martin Spring Show
  • Hoyt Art Center, New Castle, PA, 47thAnnual Hoyt Regional Exhibition

2019

  • Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY, Contemporary Portraiture

2018

  • 10 Years In, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY
  • Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn, NY, Made in New York 2018
  • Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA, 95th Annual Nicole & Harry Martin Spring Show 

2017

  • Fowler-Kellogg Art Center, Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY, The 60th Chautauqua Annual Exhibit of Contemporary Art

2016

  • Pierced Gallery, Hope Center Arts, Jersey City, NJ, Age of Confusion
  • ECHO Art Fair, OSC Manufacturing, Buffalo, NY
  • Kenan Center, Lockport, NY,  Niagara Frontier Art Exhibit

2015

  • Tower Gallery of the Haberman Gacioch Art Center, Daemen College, Amherst, NY, We Made It: Daemen College Visual and Performing Arts Faculty Exhibit 

2014

  • ECHO Art Fair,Buffalo and Erie County Central Library, Buffalo, NY
  • Upstream People Gallery, Omaha, NE, 16thAnnual Faces Juried Online International Art Exhibition
  • Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY, Displacement: Barge Prototype 

2013

  • JGK Galleries, Rochester, NY, Art-Roc Showcase 2013

2012

  • UB Anderson Gallery, Buffalo, NY, Buffalo Society of Artists 115thAnnual Catalogue Exhibition: Curated Installation Show

2011

  • Niagara Arts and Cultural Center, Niagara Falls, NY, Buffalo Society of Artists 116thAnnual Catalogue Exhibition

2010

  • Indigo Art, Buffalo, NY, Presidential: An Exhibition of Work by Presidents Past and Present of the Buffalo Society of Artists

2009

  • you and me gallery, Hamilton, Ontario Canada, For Lent

Collections:

  • Burchfield Penney Art Center
  • Belmont Housing Resources for WNY
  • Roswell Park Cancer Institute
  • John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital
  • Various private collections