Farley Gwazda explores systems of representation and the process of interpretation, creating work in a variety of media including painting, drawing, video, code, and interactive performance.
In addition to being an artist, Gwazda is a curator, teacher, and art consultant.
Since 2015, Gwazda has been working as an art consultant drawing on extensive experience to advise artists and creative workers who are looking to preserve and promote their life’s work. He provides consultation services and does hands-on work with those who are planning for their artistic legacy, as well as families managing art estates. Learn more at the Gwazda Art Services website.
Gwazda is also the Director of the Sonya Rapoport Legacy Trust which preserves and promotes the work of groundbreaking Bay Area artist Sonya Rapoport (1923-2015). He has curated and consulted on several exhibitions of her work, including at the San José Museum of Art; Krowswork, Oakland; Kala Art Institute, Berkeley; and Julie Casemore Gallery, San Francisco.
Gwazda was the Director of the Worth Ryder Art Gallery at the University of California, Berkeley (2014-2021), where he curated over 50 exhibitions, including career retrospectives of artists Katherine Sherwood, Robert Hartman, and John McNamara. He also runs the gallery internship program and in 2018 received an A+D Creative Discovery Grant to found the Art Library Project, a public, student-run DIY arts media resource.
Along with Indira Morre, Gwazda Co-Founded and Co-Directed the Martina }{ Johnston Gallery (2009-2014), a critically-praised, artist-run house gallery in Berkeley, CA, which received support from Southern Exposure’s Alternative Exposure program and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Gwazda has shown his artwork widely, including at the Berkeley Art Museum, Krowswork, Royal NoneSuch Gallery, Aggregate Space, NIAD Art Center, and the Flux Factory, among others. He was a Resident Artist at Red Gate Gallery, Beijing. He lives and works in Berkeley, CA.