Dirk Westphal is an intermedia artist whose work includes photography, sculpture and performance art. His career took shape over the 30 years he lived and worked in lower Manhattan (and more recently the Hudson Valley) as an artist and photographer. Much like NYC itself, Westphal’s work is varied and has many influences. It has evolved from street based spectacles to studio bound investigations. His earlier work was largely performative, macabre and darkly comedic. He organized street fights amongst his artist friends to settle various grievances and did for- video performances as the Conductor, leading gridlocked honking drivers in a musical score that culminated in a drive-by shooting finale, amongst other things. He then shifted focus and began photographically cataloging offbeat signifiers of our consumeristic culture such as toothpaste, mouthwash, nail lacquer, snack cakes, payphones and over bred goldfish often tweaking them for visual effect. These series are united in their focus on artifice, mutation and the subjugation of Nature as hallmarks of our culture. Most recently, he has been growing dahlias and photographing them in his Hudson Valley studio.

Dirk Westphal is an intermedia artist whose work includes photography, sculpture and performance art. His career took shape over the 30 years he lived and worked in lower Manhattan (and more recently the Hudson Valley) as an artist and photographer. Much like NYC itself, Westphal’s work is varied and has many influences. It has evolved from street based spectacles to studio bound investigations. His earlier work was largely performative, macabre and darkly comedic. He organized street fights amongst his artist friends to settle various grievances and did for- video performances as the Conductor, leading gridlocked honking drivers in a musical score that culminated in a drive-by shooting finale, amongst other things. He then shifted focus and began photographically cataloging offbeat signifiers of our consumeristic culture such as toothpaste, mouthwash, nail lacquer, snack cakes, payphones and over bred goldfish often tweaking them for visual effect. These series are united in their focus on artifice, mutation and the subjugation of Nature as hallmarks of our culture. Most recently, he has been growing dahlias and photographing them in his Hudson Valley studio.