The hate mail is in the dumpster

"Gary - Your illustrations are shattering. Some leave a lasting shock. They are certainly not easily forgotten. Don't know the context of their origin but it would certainly tempt me to read the article they illustrate. Had you been born 50 years earlier, you would have been memorialized in the Saturday Evening Post and similar contemporary magazines of the time. You have a marked talent and I would like to work with you. First project I get launched, we will talk."

-David Swift ... since deceased (writer & director of Pollyanna, The Parent Trap, Under the Yum-Yum Tree, Good Neighbor Sam & How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying)

If you try to separate Gary Aagaard's creative fine art from his illustrative works (they all fall into one of these two categories), you will find that almost impossible. His illustrations are so to the point, so thought out, so vividly expressed and executed, they go beyond their original intent and become his own fine art.

His own fine art, let lose from other's ideas, has a chance to tell its own visual story. Gary's awareness and sensitivity to worldly events and American culture and his ability to visually interpret conditions and attitudes and actions of people and events, is uncanny. He presents a point of view and shows us the way we feel or don't feel about many things. In either case, he causes us to think, consider, and appreciate his art.

Beyond the powerful initial impact of his social and political paintings, subtlety and ambiguity add a dimension that mesmerizes viewers. His skill combined with his incredible imagination and perception result in some of the most intriguing works. "Model Citizen," "Grange Gangsta Gothic" and "Suicide Blond" are prime examples. The total meaning of many of his works are beyond verbal interpretation and may mean different things to different people.Gary Aagaard creates pertinent visual comments on our time and the way he does it makes his art timeless. As a realist painter, his technique is flawless.

Stylistically he brings American social realism up to date.

Gary Aagaard is a unique and important American Artist.

-Harry Nasse, owner/director Ward-Nasse Gallery, NYC

As a curator with socialist tendencies leaning quite left-of-center and preferring socio-politcal commentary delivered in the vein of Hunter S. Thompson, Gary Aagaard's work is the perfect amalgam in 2D form. His execution and skill is extraordinary and is dwarfed only by the amount of comments and interaction from observers. I see people linger at his work for far longer than any other artist that I have ever displayed and receive far more discussion as a result. I personally own one piece, covet a dozen others, and have yet to work in a more pleasant atmosphere of business. I find it an obligation within my soul to see that his work hangs in public as it is far too good to go unnoticed.

- Michael McGivaren, Curator (Seattle)