Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale

Fans of Western art are always assured a warm, appreciation experience in Denver when the National Western Stock Show puts on the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale. The treasured annual event coincides this year with the 120th anniversary of the National Western Stock Show and has grown into one of the nation’s foremost contemporary Western art shows and sales over its 34 years. Featuring the latest works from today’s top  artists in the field, as well as numerous new names worth discovering and collecting, the 2026 edition this January is primed to be the most momentous one since the event’s launch as a joint inspiration of the Coors Brewing Company and National Western Stock Show back in the early 1990s. This year’s exhibit will be held for the first time at National Western’s remarkable new headquarters, The Legacy, located at the hub of the stock show’s redeveloped National Western Center grounds in central Denver.

Albin Veselka, Into the Night, 24 x 20 inches, oil on canvas, $4,600.

Taken together, January’s main show and December’s Young Guns Art Show feature close to 133 top contemporary Western artists and about 400 artworks, including new and original paintings, photographs, sculptures, and mixed media.

Logan Maxwell Hagege, Hopeless Dreamer, 36 x 36 inches, oil on canvas.

Honoring the West’s timeless landscapes, iconic wildlife, and the numerous cultures embodying its spaces, this year’s exhibit will carry on the tradition of an evolving art genre that surprises and expands as much as it delights. “Western art can be a very loaded term and can also mean a lot of different things to so many different people,” says Kate Hlavin, curator of the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale. “To me, it’s about honoring this part of the country that is just so beautiful and diverse, whether it be through bringing attention to ranching culture, Native Americans, and all of those different types of things we experience and cherish in the West. It’s always changing.”

Dave Santillanes, Otto's Road (study), 17 x 14 inches, oil on board, $3,200.

“Many of our artists are actually working and living this lifestyle, which adds an extra element of authenticity to the genre,” adds Grace Weihs, the event’s co-curator and exhibitions manager. “This year, we’ll be adding three artists from the Cowboy Artists of America — Chad Poppleton, Albin Vaselka, and Dave Santillanes — which we’re thrilled about. The CAA has always been an important part of our exhibit, but these three phenomenal artists will be featured in the show for the first time.”

Jill Soukup, Blue Impulse, 54.5 x 45.5 inches, oil on canvas, $21,000.

Each year, the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale honors a featured artist and adds a single one of their pieces to National Western’s prestigious permanent collection. This year’s committee-selected honoree and returning artist to the event is C&I favorite Logan Maxwell Hagege. “Logan is one of the most important artists working in the West right now,” says Hlavin, who points to the Ojai, California-based painter’s evocative Southwest scenes as some of her personal favorites. “His figures wrapped in Navajo blankets amongst the sagebrush and evening-colored clouds tell a story of the West in a way that transports you there. His bucking bronco paintings are very memorable, too — they have a unique action and depict the cowboy in such an original way.” Hagege will be presenting several paintings during the exhibit. His featured work, slated to be the 34th canvas added to the permanent collection, is a boisterous 36 x 36-inch bucking bronco oil on canvas entitled Hopeless Dreamer. Most exciting of all is the permanent new home for this collection in the Katherine and J. Robert Wilson Art Gallery, a nearly 4,500-square-foot art space on the entrance floor of The Legacy, where visitors will now be able to enjoy the growing collection year-round.

Chad Poppleton, Unpacking at the Line Cabin, 24 x 30 inches, oil on canvas, $9,500.

All proceeds from donations, ticket, table, and art sales at the Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale support the National Western Scholarship Trust, which funds more than 120 students each year studying agriculture, rural medicine, and veterinary sciences. “I think what makes our event so unique and special is what we support,” Hlavin says. “Our art sales have a direct impact on making a difference in kids’ lives and giving them college opportunities that they otherwise may not have. Seeing our grateful scholarship recipients volunteering during the stock show and our collectors taking home beautiful paintings, sculptures, and photographs — and knowing that they’ve made a real difference in someone’s life — that’s something we’re really proud of.”

PHOTOGRAPHY (Header image): Raj Chaudhuri, Headed Out, 28 x 50 inches, oil on canvas, $9,400.

PHOTOGRAPHY: (All other images) Courtesy of the artist.

From our January 2026 issue.