What does it mean to ride West? For Montana-based artist Miles Glynn, the answer is as expansive as the American West itself. Adventure, progress, nostalgia, and the promise of possibility all find their way into his work, where familiar Western imagery meets contemporary color, unexpected materials, and a playful sense of storytelling. In his upcoming solo exhibition, “Ride West,” opening October 23rd at Gallery MAR, Glynn invites collectors to reconsider the icons and ideas that have long defined the West and discover something entirely new within them.

In the year that we’ve represented Glynn’s work, we’ve been captivated by his distinctive approach to Western art. His compositions balance the recognizable with the unexpected: cowboys, cowgirls, horses, and rodeo riders emerge from layered surfaces, where vintage-inspired imagery meets graphic elements, expressive marks, and bursts of vivid color. There is a wonderful tension between old and new, reverence and irreverence, that makes his work feel both timeless and distinctly contemporary. For Glynn, honoring the Western genre means revisiting imagery that has fallen by the wayside and bringing it into the present. As he explains, he wants “to bring those [Western themes] back to life, but to inject them into a modern conversation and a contemporary context.”

Glynn’s fascination with the West began early. Growing up, he experienced much of the region through a car window, absorbing its imagery and atmosphere along the way. Since then, he has continued to explore the West from different vantage points, living in the mountain west for many years before spending two years in Marfa, Texas, and eventually returning to Butte, Montana, where he lives and works today. Each place has left its mark, though not always in obvious ways. As Glynn describes it, “I think the place I’m in informs my artwork indirectly.”

Rather than simply painting the landscape around him, he pays attention to the small, often overlooked details of everyday life. An aging warehouse, exposed rebar, or a deteriorating billboard might spark an entirely new idea in the studio. These observations find their way into his work as textures, patterns, and visual references, lending each piece a sense of history and lived experience.

His current home in Butte, a historic mining town with a strong blue-collar identity, has also reinforced his appreciation for hard work – a value he sees as fundamental to his life as an artist. “I’ve always considered what I do to be hard work, first and foremost, before expression and playfulness and all that jazz,” he says. It’s a sensibility that feels particularly at home in Park City, another former mining town whose own history of labor and transformation continues to shape its identity today. Though their contemporary identities have evolved, both communities retain a connection to the industrious spirit that helped build the American West.

That sensitivity to place extends to Glynn’s materials. His adventurous mixed-media practice incorporates silkscreen, painting, collage, and tactile elements, including neon lighting. In “Ride West,” he has pushed this experimentation even further, drawing inspiration from weathered architecture, aged signage, and surfaces that bear the evidence of time. As he describes it, he is drawn to “things all around us that have patina and have a story to tell.” These details become more than visual references; they lend his compositions a tangible sense of history, as though each piece has already lived a life of its own.

A few of his latest works introduce fresh neon color combinations, including pink and aqua hues he hasn’t paired in years. While the familiar foundation of his palette remains, these unexpected accents offer a fresh perspective on the visual language that has become his signature.

Words, too, have a way of weaving themselves into Glynn’s work. With a journalist for a father and an English teacher for a mother, he grew up steeped in an appreciation for language that continues to shape his creative process. Today, he keeps a running collection of phrases, fragments, and fleeting ideas in notebooks and on his phone, waiting for the right moment to bring them to life. Sometimes a phrase finds its way onto a canvas almost immediately; other times, an idea sits quietly for months before finding its perfect visual counterpart. In “Ride West,” the title itself becomes an invitation to play with language and meaning. As Glynn notes, “the notion of riding can conjure up a lot of feelings,” and the exhibition explores that openness through traditional horseback riding and rodeo imagery, as well as more unexpected interpretations, including a motorcycle and the idea of “riding our luck.”

This interplay between image and language is part of what makes Glynn’s work so compelling. Each piece begins with a striking image, but its narrative develops organically as he works, layering personal associations, historical references, and unexpected details. The result is work that feels rich with meaning without ever insisting on a single interpretation. “If I make work that can only be interpreted one way, then I’ve fallen short of my own expectation,” he explains. Instead, Glynn welcomes the conversations that emerge when viewers bring their own experiences and associations to a piece.

We’re thrilled to welcome collectors into this next chapter of Miles Glynn’s practice, beginning October 23rd at Gallery MAR. With its varied imagery, tactile materials, playful wordplay, and renewed exploration of color, “Ride West” celebrates the enduring spirit of the American West while reminding us that there is always more to discover. 

 

---

Written by Veronica Vale