One of Alaska’s best known contemporary artists, Kesler Woodward has painted the northern landscape for more than 45 years, from the birch and spruce forests of Alaska, to Hudson Bay in the Canadian Arctic, to the Siberian coast. Solo exhibits to his credit include the University of Alaska Museum, Alaska State Museum, Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Morris Museum of Art (Augusta, Georgia), Nevada Museum of Art, and public and commercial galleries and museums throughout the United States.  Juried and invitational exhibitions including his work have ranged from Alaska to Brazil and Russia

Kesler Woodward has been an Alaska resident since 1977, serving as Curator of Visual Arts at the Alaska State Museum and as Artistic Director of the Visual Arts Center of Alaska in Anchorage before moving to Fairbanks in 1981.  From 1981 to 2000, he was on the art faculty at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), where he served as Department Chair, Head of the Division of Arts and Communications, and continues to serve as the Academic Affiliate for the fine arts collection at the University of Alaska Museum. He retired from teaching in 2000 as Professor of Art Emeritus at UAF.

Woodward’s  artwork is included in all major public art collections in Alaska and in museum, corporate and private collections on both coasts of the United States.  He received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Alaska State Council on the Arts in 1981, the first-ever Alaska Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts in 2004, and the Rasmuson Foundation’s Distinguished Artist Award in 2012.