New Exhibition: “Generative Memory” Set to Generate Interest in Western Wyoming College’s Art Gallery

Western Wyoming Community College (Western) will be opening a new exhibition of digital and printed artworks by North Dakota artist Andrew Stark in Western’s Art Gallery this fall. The show will run from September 8 through October 20 with a reception held on September 15. 

Western’s Gallery aims to promote arts-centered learning for college students and community members alike. In an effort to expand on public understanding of artmaking, Western welcomes the vibrant abstracted works of Andrew Stark (Stark) with his exhibition: Generative Memory. The exhibition will be open to the public Friday, September 8, with an opening reception to be hosted in the gallery on the evening of Friday, September 15 from 5:00PM-7:00PM.  

Stark is an Assistant Professor of Practice at North Dakota State University, where he teaches art classes in Graphic Design, Illustration, Drawing, and Foundations. Stark revels in the exploration of art materials and methods. His work investigates reinterpretation of concepts such as the modernist sublime, impermanence, memory, and the human condition as it relates to the landscape and environment. His work often involves multiple recurring themes including loss, meditation, transcendence, time, identity, and isolation. Stark combines his thematic references and conceptual intentions in a blending of both abstraction and realism, never straying too far into either methodology.  

“Abstraction has been a part of my practice for nearly twenty years and references the layers that accumulate over time, both literal layers of paint but also of layers of time, memory, senses, meaning, and connection. This image topography becomes a metaphor for not only what we see and touch, the tangible, but also for what we feel, retain and accumulate,” says Stark. 

Stark was raised in Fargo, North Dakota where he began drawing as a child. He furthered his formal education in the arts at Minnesota State University, where he earned a B.F.A. in drawing and painting in 2003. Further pursuing the arts, Stark received his M.F.A. from The University of North Dakota in 2009.  

In association with the exhibition, Stark is slated to visit Rock Springs to oversee the installation of Generative Memory with the help of student gallery interns, as well as to present an alternative drawing demonstration to students at Western.  

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.