World Famous Buffalo Bill Western Art Show And Sale Opens For 44th Year

CODY — The 44th Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale is off to a strong start. The gallery opened Friday evening, and the famous Western art auction isn’t for another month, but more than $20,000 of art was sold before the night was over.

Dozens of artists, patrons, and curious Cody residents attended the opening of the art show at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West on Friday evening. The 104 paintings from 104 artists, valued at over $1.25 million, will be displayed there until the live auction on Sept. 19.

While attendees sipped cocktails and perused the gallery, several people purchased one of the 63 smaller pieces displayed in the Buy-It-Now Sale gallery. These pieces were created and donated by the artists with larger pieces in the show – it’s their generous way of contributing to the show that’s been so generous to them.

“We’re loyal to our artists, doing whatever we can to help their careers,” Katelyn Parker, the director of the Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale, told Cowboy State Daily. “The Buy-It-Now sale is a very generous thing our artists opt into, because they’re very loyal to the show. They’re a very generous group.”

A Colorful Show

The Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale focuses exclusively on contemporary Western artists, simultaneously giving them opportunity and a challenge. While other art auctions might take several pieces from a single artist, this show only takes one piece, per artist, per year.

The 103 artists selected to participate in this year’s show are among the most renowned Western artists working today. They chose their best work to showcase in the show, which can lead to more exposure, notoriety, and a potentially huge payout when their piece goes to auction.

The Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale might be “always different and always the same,” in Parker’s view, but it’s “always glorious.” If she had to say what stands out about the 2025 show, she described it as “very colorful.”

“There are a lot of landscapes representing the beginning or the end of the day, when the sun’s dancing on the horizon,” she said. “We also have some neon representation, so there’s a lot of color. One of the things that was said to me was, ‘I don’t see a single turkey in this year’s show.’”

Of course, that’s excluding “Ladies Man,” a bronze sculpture of a gobbler by Joshua Tobey.

Parker also mentioned the diversity of artistic mediums in this year’s show. Among the paintings and bronze sculptures, one of the more unconventional pieces is “Crystal Road” by Maeve Eichelberger, a transparent saddle made entirely of hand-etched & hand-formed acrylic.

“It’s very different,” she said. “It’s unlike anything we’ve ever had before.”

Buy It Now

While the high-priced pieces will be sold during the live auction, there are plenty of pieces available for purchase from the moment the show opens. The Buy-It-Now Sale is one of the hallmarks of the Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale, offering top-quality art for smaller homes and budgets.

“We have a small show called the Scout’s Mini, that’s exhibited in the main hub of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West,” Parker said. “The artist gets two-thirds commission if their piece in the Scout’s Mini sells, but in order to participate, we ask them to provide a donation piece for the Buy-It-Now sale in the gallery.”

This year, 63 artists donated pieces to the Buy-It-Now Sale. They range from simple sketches to smaller studies done in anticipation of creating the larger works featured in the show.

Prices for pieces in the Buy-It-Now Sale range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Anything that isn’t sold during the show is available during a silent auction held under the same tent as the live auction in September.

Parker curates the Buy-It-Now Sale as a way to make the high-priced auction more accessible. Not everyone can afford to bid on Tobey’s “Ladies Man,” which is valued at $6,500, but “Freeloader,” Tobey’s contribution to the Buy-It-Now Sale, can be acquired for $895.

“Art is for everyone,” she said. “It can feel like an exclusionary experience, or that you must be in a higher echelon or income bracket to participate. The Scout’s Mini and Buy-It-Now sales help us break down that perceived barrier so art can be enjoyed by all.”

By Monday, 23 of the 63 pieces had been sold for a collective $21,315. The remaining pieces will be available for purchase until the evening of the live auction.

Awards For Artistry

Several artists attended the gallery opening on Friday evening, if only to see if their piece had a special placard next to it. The opening is when the winners of the art show’s handful of adjudicated awards are announced.

This year’s judges were Caitlin Addlesperger, President and Executive Director of Ucross, Buffalo Bill Center of the West board member Bruce Thompson, and patron Charlee Brotherton. The judges are selected to represent three realms important to every one of the participating artists: businesses & galleries, collectors, and curators/historians.

Five Awards of Excellence were given to two-dimensional and three-dimensional pieces for their artistry, composition, and use of color, among other qualities.

 The most covered accolade, the Spirit of Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale Award, went to one of the largest pieces in the gallery: Santiago Michalek’s 48-by-96-inch oil painting, “A Matter of Utmost Urgency.” It depicts the handoff between a mail courier and a locomotive engineer on the Great Plains.

“We all felt that it represented the grit, tenacity, and innovation that have always driven the future of the West,” Thompson said.

The 104th Artist

There were 103 artists selected for the 44th Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale, but one additional artist was showcased in the gallery. Aubree Snook, 26, won the Gilly Fales Fine Art Award, a special award “to encourage and celebrate Wyoming’s next generation of artists.”

Gillian Brookes Fales was an ardent artist at Cody High School when she tragically died at age 17 from injuries sustained in a vehicle accident in February 2000. Her family established the Gilly Fales Memorial Foundation for the Arts, which includes the Gilly Fales Fine Art Award, in her honor.

“The Fales Family provides this opportunity to emerging artists between the ages of 18 and 30,” Parker said. “The artist selected has the honor of having their piece hung among Buffalo Bill Art Show artists and collect 100% of the retail if their piece sells.”

Snook, 26, has been perfecting her painting skills in Powel for over two decades. She was encouraged to submit a piece by Rene Huge, the director of the Cody Country Art League.

“It’s a huge privilege to get to have my work displayed alongside so many skilled artists and some of the best Western art that there is today,” she said. “I was really surprised and honored to be able to do that.”

Snook was immediately vindicated by her inclusion in the gallery. Her oil painting, “Driven,” depicting pronghorn with Heart Mountain in the distance, sold for $1,000 shortly after the gallery opened.

“I’ve been doing art my entire life, so this was a validation of all the work I put in over the years,” she said.

The Gilly Fales Fine Art Award isn’t awarded every year. Parker said this was the first year since 2022 that an aspiring Wyoming artist has been bestowed with the award.

“We had four very qualified applicants this year,” she said. “Some years we don’t have any submissions.”

Snook was already aware of the prestige associated with the Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale. In the future, she hopes to be one of the artists included in the main gallery and live auction.

“I would love for that to happen,” she said.

Million-Dollar Mingle

The 44th Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale will be open, free of charge, to the public until the afternoon of Sept. 19. Then, all 103 pieces and the unsold pieces from the Buy-It-Now Sale will be moved to the big tent for the live auction that evening.

The 43rd Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale raked in over $1.45 million in 2024. The proceeds were split between the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the Cody Country Chamber of Commerce, and local art organizations.

Parker can’t say if they’ll reach the same threshold of success this year, but she’s confident all the pieces are in place for yet another “wildly successful” auction.

“It’s more than just an art auction,” she said. “It isn’t just about raising funds. Art is for everyone, and I think it just advances humanity in a special way. The people under that tent might not have seen each other since the last auction. It’s a homecoming. It’s about relationships. It’s an entire experience, and we’re lucky to have such a generous group of artists and patrons.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.