A performance of Oscar Wilde’s “Salome” in Stamford in 1993 drew attention because of the intriguing work by the actor playing King Herod — it was a guy named Al Pacino. But Rainn Wilson was there, sharing the stage and watching Pacino work from the wings. “I played a page of Herod’s,” said Wilson. “It was fun because I had some acting to do.”

These days, Wilson is doing more than “some acting.” Every week, he can be seen on the hit NBC-TV sitcom “The Office,” playing the irascible Dwight Shrute. He left California earlier this month to pay a visit to Stamford, this time to show his support for another person he considers an artistic master – his dad.

Wilson was at Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery on Bedford Street on Feb. 11 for the opening reception of dad Robert Wilson’s first New England solo exhibit. The elder Wilson, an abstract expressionist who uses black as a predominant hue, lives in Stamford with wife Carla.

“We went to a lot of gallery shows and a lot of museum shows [while he was] growing up, especially American abstract expressionists from the 1950s and ‘60s,” said Rainn Wilson, who attended the reception with his wife, fiction writer Holiday Reinhorn.

Wilson said he learned from his dad to “appreciate [abstract expressionism] for the dynamics of its shape, color, form, movement and narrative. One of the things we definitely share is a love of that period of art.”

 Wilson, who owns several of his dad’s works, said he’s never seriously painted himself. “I play music. The guitar, and a little bit of drums,” he said, adding, “Maybe some day I’ll try my hand with a paint brush.”

The Robert Wilson solo exhibit will be on display through March 18 at the Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery, 96 Bedford St.

Do you plan to attend the exhibit of work by Robert Wilson at the Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery?