Selected Exhibitions

2023

Idyllwild Open Studios- July 8, 2023 10-4pm

CIVIC CENTER GALLERY- Encinitas City Hall-April-July 

505 S. Vulcan Avenue, Encinitas, CA 92024- solo show

Artscape Fall/Winter 2022-2023 Riverside Arts Council -Riverside County Administration Building 4080 Lemon Street

Golden Pine Gallery Idyllwild CA 

2022

Borrego Art Institute- October 2022 solo show

Poway Center for Performing Arts 15498 Espola Road Poway -The sweat and the panic April-June -solo show

Borrego Art Institute-group show

Golden Pine Gallery

2021

William D Cannon Art Gallery- Carlsbad CA Juried Biennial Exhibition- June 21-August 7, 2021 Jurors: Sonya Sparks-Sparks Gallery & Andrew Utt, Executive Director of Lux Art Institute in Encinitas

Golden Pine Gallery- 54750 N Circle Dr. Idyllwild CA 6/2020-ongoing

Borrego Art Institute -665 Palm Canyon Dr. 5/2021-October

Art Alliance of Idyllwild Gallery-26364 Saunders Meadow Road, Idyllwild CA 

2020

 Blind Insect Gallery- 2841 NE Alberta St Portland Oregon  12/2020-1/2021 -Bye 2020

Fresh Paint Gallery -1020 Prospect St La Jolla   2020 January-March 

2019

Poway Center for Performing Arts 15498 Espola Road Poway“Straight Tank Swallow” Two decades of triumphs and yields in the desert. A retrospective of paintings of people that work to live in California. Solo show

Fresh Paint Gallery -1020 Prospect St La Jolla     Reception 1/25/19 6-8pm

2017 winner in celebration of La Victoria’s 100th anniversary.Five San Diego artists were chosen as finalists in the art competition and $10,000 was distributed among the top three winners.Weston Riffle took third place in the competition.

2014 Georgina Cole Library, Carlsbad CA solo show

2013 Las Laguna Gallery- Small Works- Big Talent Laguna Beach

2013-38th Annual Small Image Show-Gallery 21 Juror: Karen McGuire, Curator of Exhibitions for the City of Carlsbad's William D. Cannon Art Gallery

2012-Poway Center for Performing Arts- Juror: Pat Kelly

2010 -Cover Artist forVision Magazine

2009 -In the Hands of the People: Cesar Chavez ArtSpace Cross Cultural Center@ UCSD

2008- San Diego Museum of Art Artist Guild Fine Art Festival V

2007-William D. Cannon Art GalleryJuror: Elizabeth Armstrong, Deputy Director for Programs and Chief Curator at the Orange County Museum of Art

2006-National Steinbeck Center,"My California Views: From the Golden State" Salinas, CA.juror: Dr. Emily Sano, Director of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

2005-Oceanside Museum of Art,OMA Regional 4jurors: Mary Beebe, Director, The Stuart Collection, University of California, San Diego; Derrick Cartwright, Director, San Diego Museum of Art; and Arthur Ollman, Director, Museum of Photographic Arts

2005-San Diego Art Institute,Southern California Regional Juried Exhibition,Balboa ParkJuror: Osvaldo Sanchez: Director Museum of Modern Art, New York

2005 Bard Hall Gallery, 4190 Front Street, San Diego

2004 Bird Rock Gallery, La Jolla, CA 

2005 Boehm Gallery, Palomar College, San Marcos.Juror: Maxine Gaiber Exectutive Director: Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts

2005 4 Design GallerySan Diego, CA. solo show

2005- Gotthelf Art GalleryLa Jolla, CA92037 "The Golem"   invitational exhibition

2004-COVA Open Studios; San Diego

2004-San Diego Hospice San Diego, CA

2004 Escondido Municipal Gallery, "Small Images" Escondido, CA.juror: Martha Matthews

2004 Escondido Municipal Gallery, "Getting There" Escondido, CA. Juror:Rachel Teagle: Curator and Co-Department Head at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

2004- Cover artist ArtWalk Magazine

2004- National Steinbeck Center, "Images of California Agriculture"; 3/04-5/04, Salinas, CA.juror :Karen Tsujimoto, Senior Curator of Art for Oakland Museum of California

2004-Escondido Municipal Gallery, "Summation"; Escondido, CA juror: G. Pasha Turley: Professor of Art/Gallery Director,Southwestern College

2003- San Diego County Administration Center San Diego, CA

2003- B A E Local Artists Gallery San Diego CA

2003-Escondido Municipal Gallery, "Art Riot" Escondido, CA.juror: Debby and Larry Kline

2003-Poway Performing Arts Center Poway Art Exhibit juror: Virginia Mathews and Ardel Bloomquist

-------------------------------------------

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022 Poway Center for Performing Arts

2022 Borrego Art Institute

2019 Poway Center for Performing Arts

2012 Bread and Cie

2012-Gallery 4311

2014 Georgia Cole Library

2012- OB Peoples

2007 Lafayette Hotel San Diego, CA

2007 San Carlos Public Library San Diego, CA

2005 Condo Gallery San Diego, CA

2005 4 Design Gallery San Diego, CA

2004 ArtWalk GallerySan Diego, CA

-------------------------------------------

Gallery  Representation

Fresh Paint Gallery-La Jolla 2018-ongoing

Golden Pine Gallery-Idyllwild CA 2020-ongoing

Bird Rock Gallery-La Jolla CA 2004-2005

-------------------------------------------

ASSOCIATIONS

Member studio artist : San Diego Spanish Village Art Center

Member: Art Alliance of Idyllwild

San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild

University Heights Art Association

-----------------------------------------------

Education

BA San Diego State 1993

 MA San Jose State 1996

Miscellaneous/Awards:

1st place Here and Now show-Art Alliance of Idyllwild AAI Gallery 4/2022

Cover Artist forVision MagazineJan. 2010

2004 - 1st place Escondido Municipal Gallery, "Getting There”Juror: Rachel Teagle

2003-Best of Show award, Poway Center for Performing Arts

2003 Featured Artist for SanDiegoArtist.com

2004 Cover artist for '04 ArtWalk poster

2005 Completed large scale mural with students for Birney Elementary’s 75th anniversary

2005 Building mural for American Market

2005 Art Instructor at Birney Elementary San Diego, CA

-----------------------------------------------
Bibliography

Schwab, Dave “ Artist Weston Riffle open new studio in Arts District Liberty Station” SD News August 8, 2024

Brandt, Angela "Anti-Artist opens solo show” San Diego Union-Tribune March 30, 2022

Alfaro, Elaine“Del Cerro artist’s upcoming exhibit shares local history and culture” SD News April 6, 2022

Morse, E.R.,The Renascent, Painting Vol 1 2005

Board, Josh, ‘Crasher’ (June, 02, 2005) San Diego Reader

National Steinbeck Center News Winter 2007

Cannons Art Gallery’s Resource Guide 3 part education program for 2006-07

Mission Times Courier 2017

Fark, Bill ‘New Escondido Studios Highlight Summer Art Scene’ North County Times, June16, 2004

Johnston, Ron ‘New Art in UH” August 2005 University Heights News

San Diego Citybeat Red List 2011

Visionary Artist- Vision Magazine, January issue 2010

Westlin, Martin Jones, “To live and Serve: Exploring Golem” (April, 4, 2005) Golden Triangle News

Proudly featuring on Find the Artist’s Top 50 San Diego Artists

BIO

Weston Riffle is a native Californian born in La Mesa in 1970. He received his Bachelor's degree from San Diego State in 1993 and Masters from San Jose State in 1996. He is a mostly self-taught painter who describes himself as an anti-artist. His painting portrays the beauty and culture of California, specifically the southern and agricultural regions. “I wish to express simple purity in desire, action, and hope, of the people and places I have known. Overall, themes, images and concepts reflect real and imagined memories of my experience growing up a rural Californian, traveling through the Central Valley, stories of prior generations and growing old myself. The general theme is the struggle of the individual against forces not clearly understood. Form, composition, and color develop around the individual or situation I attempt to resolve, or portray with each painting.  Usually complex beginnings end in simple composition. A fatalistic view seems to be the result.” 

“I paint to avoid the gray.  Like a song or a scent that awakens something.  When I paint I pay attention.  Sometimes things I stopped seeing reappear and I am a fifteen year old again trying to find god, meaning and purpose; and thinking there is such a thing.”

Riffle’s paintings have been exhibited in solo and group shows and permanent collections throughout California including, the National Steinbeck Museum in Salinas, the William D. Cannon Art Gallery, the Oceanside Museum of Art, Gotthelf Gallery in La Jolla

"In style and subject matter Weston Riffle's work brings to mind the social realism movement that had its heyday in America and Mexico between the two world wars-a realism that both celebrated working people and critiqued the socio-economic and political forces that create inequality. At first glance, the brilliantly colored paintings of farm workers and fishermen seem to be simply celebrations of California rural life- and they certainly are that -until we notice the hidden faces and the repetition of identical figures. It is as if the farm workers in their anonymity are just so many interchangeable parts in a larger machine. Or perhaps the repetitive nature of their back-breaking work has rubbed the individuality out of them. The political makes itself known through the personal." 

Deborah M. Williams-Fresh Paint Gallery-La Jolla CA