Gary Godbee received a B.F.A. degree in painting from Boston University in 1974, and studied graduate painting at Brooklyn College and Montclair State University. He currently teaches painting courses at the Montclair Art Museum School/ Yard School of Art, and the Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster, NJ.

Gary is best known for his realist landscape paintings. His work has been shown throughout the United States and is found in collections in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Recent exhibitions include one-person shows at Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster, NJ and the Studio 7 Art Gallery in Bernardsville, NJ. He participated in the show ACOPAL: Exhibition of Contemporary American Realism at the Beijing World Art Museum and other major art centers in China, as well as the Butler Institute in Youngstown, Ohio, and at the National Arts Club in NYC.

Most recently he was included in the International Grants Exhibition at Galleri Ramfjord in Oslo, Norway, the 2023 Figurative Exhibition at the Salmagundi Club NYC, selected as one of the Select 50 for the Portrait Society of America 2023 International Competition and was chosen as a finalist for the Arts Renewal Center’s 15th and 16th Annual International Salons in 2021 and 2022. His work was also featured in the 2017 N.J. Arts Annual: Special Edition at the N.J. State Museum in Trenton, the 2010 N.J. Arts Annual: Reality & Artifice at the N.J. State Museum, and in the 2005 N.J. Arts Annual: Place of Mind at the Montclair Art Museum. He received Fellowships in 2004 and 1994 from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Exceptional Merit Awards from the City Without Walls Gallery in Newark in 2002 and 1995, and a Merit Award from the Portrait Institute in New York in 1996. In 2000, he completed two twenty-foot wide murals commissioned through the NJ State Council on the Arts that are now permanently installed in the Department of Labor Building in Trenton. He is currently represented by Studio 7 Fine Arts Gallery in Bernardsville and Galleri Ramfjord in Oslo.

Works by the artist