Langlas Loft Galleries

On view May 19-November 22, 2026

Waterloo artist Paul Bland’s expressive abstract acrylic paintings pulsate with color and gestural marks in compositions that manage to be both well-balanced and delightfully animated. The author of My Waterloo Stories, Mr. Bland holds an undergraduate degree in English and a master’s degree in Secondary Education from The City College of New York. He is most influenced by the mid-century art he saw in the art galleries of Madison Avenue and in New York City museums when he first began studying art.

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The artist has spent countless hours working on three separate bodies of work: Minimalist landscapes, Modernist-inspired non-representational compositions, and calligraphic abstractions. He states, “When growing up in Iowa in the 1960s, I would find scraps of plywood to paint on in the neighborhood. I used left-over house paint and standard brushes. Some of the paintings on canvas included in this exhibition are like those early house-paint artworks I completed as a child. As an adolescent, I remember helping my father complete storm-window jobs in the late afternoons. I wiped the windows clean. Windows that framed and reflected sunlight colors, the sky, and clouds.”

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Paul Bland dedicates his exhibition of artwork to the memory of Dean and Darlene Bland.