Kevin Bell: Western (re)Visions

Kevin Bell: Western (re)Visions

March 6-July 25, 2026 

The Missoula Art Museum is pleased to present the work of artist and educator Kevin Bell, who has exhibited internationally and serves as Professor of Art at the University of Montana.

Bell’s paintings update the tradition of landscape painting, re-evaluating the heroic perspectives of awe and inquisition historically embedded in the American West. Through research, visitation, and collective and individual recollection, his paintings act as a place for question and introspection into our contemporary experience of land. Oscillating between idealism and irony, with environmental and social concern at the core, Bell attempts to clarify how legacies like Manifest Destiny and colonialism continue to shape where we are now.

Artist’s Statement

This series examines our current landscape in context of the historical legacy of western expansion in the United States. Each painting contrasts the current view of a specific location with written passages from nineteenth-century journals and documents. I have painted each place as it exists today, and locations are researched to be as precise as possible--usually within 100 feet.

European American settlement of the West was framed as a divinely-ordained project to build a more perfect society. Yet creating this American utopia caused horrific Native American bloodshed and cultural dislocation, profound environmental degradation, significant settler struggle and moral compromise.

These juxtapositions seek to ask a central question: Does our contemporary landscape reflect our American ideal? After heavy costs over many years, was this what we wanted, or was there something else we desired?