Western Art
The Western Art collection grew out of a turning point in Matt Josef’s studio practice.
After returning from his Taos, New Mexico studio in 2014, Josef began painting horses at the ranch in Purcell, Oklahoma. What started as a quiet conversation with the animals in the pasture quickly opened into something much larger. Those first horse paintings brought attention from collectors around the country and shifted Josef into the contemporary Western artist he is known as today.
This collection brings together the major threads of his work: the portrait artist he was in the beginning, the abstract expressionist language he studied and developed, and the Western imagery that became his primary visual identity. Horses, cowboys, riders, buffalo, Native imagery, open skies, grit, memory, and myth all move through the paintings.
Rather than treating Western art as nostalgia, Josef approaches it as a living language. His work blends recognizable Western subjects with layered color, loose drawing, expressive mark-making, repetition, text, and abstraction. The result is work that feels rooted in place but still contemporary, personal, and evolving.
Western Art remains the core of Josef’s artistic identity and continues to expand across series, scales, and styles. These paintings carry the spirit of the land, the studio, the ranch, and the road, forming the foundation of Josef’s ongoing voice as a contemporary Western artist.
