Western’s Art Gallery welcomes artworks from across North America for newest exhibition “Contemporary Drawing”

Western Wyoming Community College (Western) will be opening a new exhibition featuring artworks of 16 different artists from the United States and Canada. The featured artworks aim to highlight the broad artistic medium of drawing as it exists in the contemporary art world. The show, “Contemporary Drawing”, will be on display in Western’s Art Gallery from October 27 through January 19 with a closing reception to be held on January 18.  

Western’s Gallery aims to promote arts-centered learning for college students and community members alike. In a continuing effort to expand on Sweetwater County’s public understanding of artmaking, Western welcomes a wide range of drawing-related disciplines and styles of artists from eleven different states and two Canadian Provinces. The exhibition will be open to the public Friday, October 27, with a closing reception to be hosted in the gallery on the evening of Thursday, January 18 from 3:00PM-5:00PM.   

The exhibition: Contemporary Drawing started as an international call for artists who include drawing processes in their work. Over 130 works of art were initially submitted for consideration. After a scrutinous process of jurying, 28 of the best works were selected for the final exhibition lineup. Contemporary Drawing will showcase the ways in which traditional drawing approaches are being expanded on to give voice to a wide spectrum of stylistic and conceptual outcomes. 

“We are very excited to host this drawing show in our gallery. From a teaching standpoint, the variety of media and technical approaches to drawing that will be on display are going to be huge teaching tools for me,” says Ben Nathan, an art professor at Western who oversees the gallery operations. Nathan further states that: “My intention with putting this show together is two-fold. First, I like the idea of giving artists who are engaged in expanding on the traditional notions of drawing a platform to show the fruits of their efforts. Second, I am really excited about the opportunity a show like this will give me to show drawing students that the art of today is all about subverting preconceived notions of what drawing is supposed to be.” 

Works in the exhibition will be available for purchase, and proceeds will be split between the artists and Western’s Art Gallery. Ben Nathan will oversee the installation and display of Contemporary Drawing along with the help of student gallery interns.  

For additional information on the exhibition or other visual arts programming at Western contact: Ben Nathan, Assistant Professor of Art at bnathan@westernwyoming.edu or (307)382-1723.