Jen Stark (born 1983 in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

) is a multi-media American artist who lives and works in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, California. Stark is best known for creating optical art using psychedelic colors in patterns and drips that mimic intricate motifs found in nature. On March 26, 2021, Stark became a notable

non-fungible token A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided, that is recorded in a blockchain, and that is used to certify authenticity and ownership. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the b ...

maker when Farzin Fardin Fard won a bid to buy her piece ''Multiverse'' for 150

Ethereum Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (Abbreviation: ETH; sign: Ξ) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capita ...

Early life

Stark earned a BFA from

Maryland Institute College of Art The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is a private art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the oldest art colleges in the U ...

in 2005, majoring in fibers with a minor in animation. While studying abroad, Stark could not afford expensive art supplies so she purchased colored construction paper and started to experiment with it. Eventually, working with paper would become a hallmark of Stark's practice.

Bodies of Work

Stark is known for her repetitive, intricate sculptures which often resemble patterns in nature. Stark's hypnotic work embraces replication as it mimics plant growth, evolution, topographical maps, infinity, fractals and the geometry of the universe. Although Stark is most recognized for her paper sculptures, she has explored a variety of media including wood, paint, mirrors, metal, and animation. Her signature creations combine a variety of materials that have acted as a catalyst for more established spiritual proclivity as expressed through hypnotic mandala-like configurations.

Sculpture

In addition to operating in a two-dimensional format, Stark migrates her aesthetic into three-dimensional sculpture. In 2019, the artist transformed the Joshua Liner Gallery in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

from a typical white-cube gallery into a kaleidoscope of color and optical mass. The work in this solo exhibition illustrates Stark's interest in concepts such as, optical illusions, The Fibonacci Sequence, fractals, and

Riemannian geometry Riemannian geometry is the branch of differential geometry that studies Riemannian manifolds, smooth manifolds with a ''Riemannian metric'', i.e. with an inner product on the tangent space at each point that varies smoothly from point to poin ...

that explores the theory of curved space in the flat universe.

Public Art and Murals

Stark has completed outdoor and indoor murals throughout the country, ranging from

Culver City Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...

Fort Lauderdale A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

to Montauk. In 2014, Stark created a vinyl interior of a bathroom inside

Gagosian Gallery Gagosian is a contemporary art gallery owned and directed by Larry Gagosian. The gallery exhibits some of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. There are 16 gallery spaces: five in New York City; three in London; two in Par ...

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...

and the following year she painted a mural surrounding multiple connected office walls at the

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

Headquarters in Menlo Park. In 2020, Stark created a large-scale public art installation in Downtown Los Angeles called "Light Spectrum" out of translucent vinyl pigmented in psychedelic colors. The vinyl material casts a prism onto the ground as the sun transitions throughout the day.

Animation

Stark has created animations since 2005, at which point she made films entirely from intricately cut paper. In 2015, Stark was invited to create original artwork and animations for the 32nd

MTV Video Music Awards The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...

, hosted by

Miley Cyrus Miley Ray Cyrus ( ; born Destiny Hope Cyrus on November 23, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her distinctive raspy voice, her music spans across varied styles and genres, including pop, country, rock, hip hop ...

Corporate Collaborations

Stark has collaborated with corporate partners, lending her design to product packaging. In 2018, she worked with makeup company Smashbox to design a holiday collection called Holidaze. That same year, Stark offered several of her designs for

Vans Vans is an American manufacturer of skateboarding shoes and related apparel, established in Anaheim, California, and owned by VF Corporation. The company also sponsors surf, snowboarding, BMX, and motocross teams. From 1996 to 2019, the comp ...

sneakers. In 2019, Stark created designs for Mendocino County's Las Jaras Wines.

Museum Collections and Exhibition History

Stark's work is collected worldwide, notably by the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

in Washington, D.C., the

Miami International Airport Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically as Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the greater Miami metropolitan area with over 1,000 daily flights to 167 domestic and international destinations, including most co ...

in Miami, Florida, the

Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) is a collecting museum located in North Miami, Florida. The building was designed by the architecture firm Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, New York City. History The Museum of Contemporary Art began ...

, Florid
The West Collection
in Oaks, Pennsylvania and the

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is a museum of American art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The museum, founded by Alice Walton and designed by Moshe Safdie, officially opened on 11 November 2011. It offers free public admission. Overview ...

, Bentonville, Arkansas. In 2019, Stark had a solo show called "Color Cascade" at the Schneider Museum of Art in

Ashland, Oregon Ashland is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States. It lies along Interstate 5 approximately 16 miles (26 km) north of the California border and near the south end of the Rogue Valley. The city's population was 21,360 at the 2020 cen ...

. The exhibition featured work made from a range of materials, including wood, paper and motion and sound activated animation. In March 2021, Stark was one of three artists to participate in "Light the Night," a group exhibition featuring animations that were projected onto buildings in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Stark's work was projected on the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale.

References

External links

*
Written Wired interview

A YouTube video of stop-motion animation “Papermation” from 2007

* ttp://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/11/san-francisco-street-artists-way-out-west-graffiti/ NY Times article on Art City Project
News piece on mural in Miami International Airport

Jen Stark on her Cosmo Cover, Miley Cyrus, and the VMAs

Interview with Flaunt Magazine

Interview with Electrify Magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stark, Jen Living people 1983 births Artists from Miami Maryland Institute College of Art alumni 21st-century American artists 21st-century American women artists