Cosmic Connections: The Metaphysical Practice of Kirk Clark
January 25 – July 5, 2020

The International Museum of Art and Science is proud to present this retrospective exhibition of the artworks produced by Kirk Clark. Throughout a sixty year period, Mr. Clark has engaged in a life long practice of art making as well as collecting an enviable body of work. He has been a prolific artist by any measure having created over a thousand mono-prints, hundreds of paintings and dozens of sculptures and other artworks in various media. Having initially trained as an undergraduate in Fine Art at the University of New Mexico where he studied under the tutelage of sculptors Charles Madox, Steve Dubove and William Goodman, Kirk Clark has continued to seek out instruction from highly skilled craftspersons throughout his six decade long career and has worked collaboratively with such illustrious artists as print makers Michael Vigil and Shinzaburo Takeda as well as painters and sculptors Thom Wheeler, Jonathan Sobol and (Enrique Carbajal González) Sebastían.

Kirk Clark has pursued an artistic practice founded in the metaphysical principles of Wassily Kandinsky and has primarily worked in a style that is informed by Abstract Expressionism. Yet rather than simply being derivative, Clark has expanded upon mid-Century Formalism in a manner that is both innovative and authentic. His expansive body of work demonstrates his restlessness and his reluctance to merely repeat an idea from season to season. Over time, the progression in his priorities and techniques for exploration and expression is clearly evident while a consistency of identifiable hand is visible throughout. Informed by his own synesthesia as well as his meditative practice, Clark’s artworks are created spontaneously with a stream of consciousness that reflects his understanding of cosmic harmonies and rhythms of the universe. The notion of transcendence is central to his process and to a fuller appreciation of his artworks which carry cosmological narratives that extend beyond their formal design. They are records of transcendent phenomena that are visual analogues which reveal universal relationships between chaotic forces and corporeal experience. Ultimately, such artworks defy comprehensive description and are conceived to be experienced subjectively as oracles for personal illumination.

Wild Bees
May 23 – October 18, 2020

Wild Bees, an exhibition showcasing the works of Paula Sharp and Ross Eatman, is a collection of stunning macro photographs depicting the world of America’s native bees. The exhibit is on a national tour of prominent museums, botanical gardens and galleries and will be featured at the International Museum of Art & Science from May 23, 2020–October 18, 2020.

Sharp and Eatman are co-authors of the highly-regarded and popular website, Wild Bees of New York, the culmination of a three-year project tracking and photographing more than 120 northeastern bee species. Supported by the New York State Environmental Protection Fund, the project focused on bees of New York’s Rockefeller State Park Preserve, a forested area that is home to many woodland bee species; and Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, an experimental farmland with orchards, vegetable gardens and apiaries.

In September of 2018, Sharp and Eatman commenced a new project at the National Butterfly Center of Hidalgo County, Texas, documenting native bee species inhabiting the unique ecosystems of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. In January 2019, Sharp & Eatman launched Wild Bees of the National Butterfly Center, a website dedicated to LRGV bees.

Paula Sharp is a photojournalist and writer. She is the author of the bestseller Crows Over a Wheatfield and four other New York Times Notable Books. Sharp has traveled throughout the United States and Brazil, photographing and documenting life here and in the Amazon. Ross Eatman has been a nature and travel photographer for twenty years. He is a co-founder of Sharp-Eatman Nature Photography, a society dedicated to documenting conservation issues.

Photo credit: Perplexing Bumblebee Exploring Mallow © 2018, Paula Sharp

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• Sat Jun 20, 2020 | 7:30PM